Northern Climacocystis

Climacocystis borealis

On rotten coniferous wood. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies large, annual, 5-15 cm across, fan-shaped, semicircular, attached to the substrate by the broad edge, usually fused in overlapping tiers, watery, soft, fleshy, tough, white, cream, brown-spotted, yellowish and fibrous when dried. Hymenophore white, yellowish, pores round or angular. Flesh white, soft, with an unpleasant smell and a sour-bitter taste. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies whitish, brown-spotted, bitter-tasting. Grows in forests and parks on fallen spruces, sometimes on pine stumps, rarely on living trees. Causes a brownish rot of the wood. Uncommon. A destroyer of wood, mostly a saprotroph.