Play narration:

CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNGI: SPORES

Other fungi, such as the fungus Thielaviopsis in this photo, produce spores that are multi-cellular, but darkly pigmented. Dark pigmentation is thought to enhance the ability of spores to survive exposure to adverse environmental conditions, such as exposure to ultraviolet light, and to ward off attack by other parasitic soil fungi and bacteria.

I refer to Thielaviopsis as the "Tootsie Roll®" fungus, because the spores that it produces, while multi-cellular, break into individual cells, just like the sections of a Tootsie-Roll®.