Northern Tooth

Northern Tooth is a widespread and fairly common tooth fungus. It is not poisonous but is not edible due to a bitter taste and a tough texture.

The fruiting body is annual and often massive, up to 20″ tall and 10″ wide. It consists of tight, overlapping layers of shelf-like caps joined at the base by a whitish plate. It lives high on the trunks if living hardwood trees (parasitic), especially sugar maple, but also other maples, green ash, and beech. It is sometimes found on recently dead trees and stumps but is rarely found on fallen logs. It enters the tree through a wound and causes heartwood rot. It has a sour smell when it is fresh, an unpleasant, rancid odor as it dries.

There is no stem.

The brackets (caps) are fan-shaped; convex, flat, or slightly depressed; 4″ to 6″ across; 1″ to 4¾″ deep; and ¾″ to 2″ thick at the base, becoming thinner toward the margin. They are cream-colored to chamois yellow when fresh, turning brownish when dry. The upper surface is dry and rough to the touch and may be densely hairy. It has very faint concentric zones. The margin is sharp and becomes rolled inward when dry.

The pore surface on the underside of the bracket consists of numerous, tightly packed, downward-pointing spines. The spines are cylinder-shaped, up to ½″ long, and sharply pointed. They are tapered from the base to the tip, so that spores falling straight down will not be obstructed by the surface of the tooth further down. They are creamy yellow when fresh, becoming brownish and fragile when dry. The sport print is white.

The flesh is white and tough.

Living hardwoods, especially sugar maple, but also other maples

July to October

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Widespread and fairly common in northeastern United States

Tooth fungi do not form a single taxonomic group. They are characterized by having a spore-producing surface with spines, or “teeth”, instead of pores or tubes.

Growing on a silver maple

Same specimen, two months later

Northern Tooth Mushroom - Climacodon Septentrionalis
Mariana Roberts

Location: Silver Bay, MN

Around the garden...

Location: Excelsior, MN

At base of maple tree

Location: Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Same specimen, two months later

Location: Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Growing on a silver maple

Location: Marinette County, Wisconsin

Location: growing on the side of a Maple in Cook Co Mn

Parasitic; in dense overlapping clusters on trunks of living deciduous trees, particularly maple and beech