# Northern Tooth

*Climacodon septentrionalis*

Instead of typical gills or pores, the underside of this bracket fungus features thousands of tightly packed, icicle-like 'teeth' that point downward to release its spores.

- **Taxonomy:** Fungi › Basidiomycota › Agaricomycetes › Polyporales › Meruliaceae › Climacodon
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** forest
- **Habitat:** Deciduous and mixed forests, growing primarily on the trunks of living hardwood trees, especially maples and beeches.
- **Diet:** Saprotrophic and parasitic; decays the heartwood of host trees to extract nutrients, causing white rot.
- **Range:** North America, Europe, Northern Asia
- **Size:** Stacked shelving structures can grow up to 30 cm wide and 10 cm thick, weighing several kilograms.
- **Lifespan:** The visible fruiting bracket lasts only a single season (weeks to months), but the internal mycelium can live inside the host tree for decades.
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Deforestation, forest fragmentation, and the removal of mature, dead, or dying host trees during intensive logging.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless to touch and safe to observe at any distance. This fungus is non-toxic but extremely tough, fibrous, and bitter, making it completely inedible. No special action is required upon contact, though washing hands after handling wild fungi is always recommended.

## About

Climacodon septentrionalis is a species of polypore fungus in the family Meruliaceae . It is a plant pathogen. Originally named Hydnum septentrionale by Elias Magnus Fries in 1821, it was transferred to the genus Climacodon by Petter Karsten in 1881. It is inedible.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/3ec6398e-9429-44e4-ba39-5d7a3e40af74
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/350366
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climacodon septentrionalis
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/2340628/medium.jpg (caspar s, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.