Gloiodon strigosus is a species of fungus belonging to the family Bondarzewiaceae. It was originally described by Olof Swartz in 1810, and received its current name by Petter Adolf Karsten in 1879 .
Like all species of the genus Gloiodon, it is a wood-inhabiting fungus producing annual fruiting bodies with a hydnoid hymenium on dead wood .
It has been reported from the boreal-hemiboreal zones in Europe, North America and Asia . In Europe it is mainly found in Fennoscandia but are considered rare .
Fruiting body is pileate to resupinate, ochreaceous to greyish brown but darkening with age. Forms caps up to 3 cm and resupinate patches up to 6 cm. Pileus broadly attached and covered with stiff, shaggy, dark brown hairs, separated from the context with a thin dark zone. Hymenium with conical spines, up to 1 cm long, with a pale greyish brown colour that turns to a dark ash grey (usually covered in white spore mass) with age or under dry conditions .
The hyphal system has both been described as dimitic and as monomitic with dark sclerified generative hyphae that simulates skeletal hyphae. Spores are hyaline, amyloid and measure 4.5-6 x 3.5-5 õm . Basidia have basal clamps and four sterigmata. Gloeocystidia are present .
Gloiodon strigosus usually forms multiple caps in close approximity, often growing by the edges of resupinate patches .
The hymenium with long spines coupled with a hairy pileus bears resemblance to Auriscalpium vulgare. However, the fruiting bodies of A. vulgare has a long stipe and grows out of Pinus cones on or in the ground .
Other species in the genus Gloiodon have a similar appearance but differ in either substrate or distribution. G. occidentalis grows on conifer wood and G. nigrescens is a tropical species .
It is a saprotrophic fungus living on dead trunks of deciduous trees causing white rot . Fruiting bodies are usually growing on fairly hard wood of moss covered trunks . In Europe it is mostly associated with Populus but is also found on other deciduous trees such as Alnus and Salix . Favors older forest habitats with high humidity and a stable stand of deciduous trees .
Gloiodon strigosus is classified as Least Concern (LC) in the Finnish national red list , while being classified as Near Threatened (NT) in Norway and Vulnurable (VU) in Sweden . The species is also classified as Imperiled (N2) in Canada .
In Sweden it is regarded as a good indicator of older forest habitats with a long continuity of deciduous trees and high stable humidity . It is sensitive towards all forestry practices that negatively affects the humidity levels and occurrence of deciduous wood .