Chaga chunks Inonotus obliquus, commonly called chaga (a Latinisation of the Russian word чага), is a fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae. It is parasitic on birch and other trees. The sterile conk is irregularly formed and resembles burnt charcoal. It is not the fruiting body of the fungus, but a sclerotium or mass of mycelium, mostly black because of a great amount of melanin. Some people consider chaga medicinal. Inonotus obliquus is found most commonly in the Circumboreal Region of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is distributed in birch forests.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Compounds documented for Inonotus obliquus across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Lanostane, Tirucallane and Euphane triterpenoids70
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Inonotus obliquus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens18
Marker genes3
GenBank sequences10
eDNA detections23
Countries6
The DNA barcodea real sequence read deposited for this species
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P★ITS10★ITS1
animal barcodefungal barcode
06Genome at a glanceGoaT · NCBI
The complete instruction manualInonotus obliquus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Genome size≈36 126 319 bp assembly estimate
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
THIS GENOME Inonotus obliquus0.04 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
Assembly levelScaffold
07Deep time~0.05 Ma lineage
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin0.05 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type21 959 records
Wild obs. + sensor20 768
Museum / vouchered1 184
Cultivated / captive7
Origin
Introduced7
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO56 052 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy79% within 1 km
≤100 m 11 248≤1 km 3 592≤10 km 3 056>10 km 867
18 763 georeferenced · 2 005 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor20 768
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy55% within 1 km
≤100 m 57≤1 km 283≤10 km 230>10 km 45
615 georeferenced · 569 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 184
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy0% within 1 km
≤10 km 7
7 georeferenced
Open the mapnot free-living7
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions31 of 61 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Helsinki, FI
310
SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record
123
Olocation not on record
119
Joensuu, FI
91
Copenhagen, DK
81
Görlitz, DE
53
Tartu, EE
41
Uppsala, SE
29
TROMlocation not on record
16
Jyväskylä, FI
15
Karlsruhe, DE
15
Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record
12
Chicago, US
11
Philadelphia, US
11
Zürich, CH
10
Toronto, CA
10
Metsähallituslocation not on record
9
Kuopio, FI
9
GJOlocation not on record
9
Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centrelocation not on record
7
WU-MYClocation not on record
7
Mlocation not on record
7
Vancouver, CA
6
CA
5
Trondheim, NO
5
Bronx, US
5
Kew, GB
4
St. Paul, US
4
WTUlocation not on record
3
Catholic University of Pekinglocation not on record
3
nsnflocation not on record
3
Davis and Elkins Collegelocation not on record
3
Universidade de Lisboa, Museu Bocagelocation not on record
2
LDlocation not on record
2
Acadia Universitylocation not on record
2
HabitatVisionlocation not on record
2
Denver, US
1
Osaka, JP
1
McWane Science Centerlocation not on record
1
ILLSlocation not on record
1
IFR-DNFlocation not on record
1
Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record
1
Helsinki, FI
1
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Researchlocation not on record
1
Oulu, FI
1
BRNUlocation not on record
1
FLASlocation not on record
1
Tilburg, NL
1
MeiseBGlocation not on record
1
Pullman, US
1
Tomioka, JP
1
BioFokuslocation not on record
1
Salzburg, AT
1
Warsaw, PL
1
DOI/FWS, Kenai National Wildlife Refugelocation not on record
1
UNINE:NEUlocation not on record
1
Private Collection of Casey Albrittonlocation not on record
1
Stockholm, SE
1
Berlin, DE
1
Ann Arbor, US
1
Museo Entomologico de Leonlocation not on record
1
61 institutions · 1 069 of 1 184 vouchered records shown · 112 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA23 detections
Where the DNA of Inonotus obliquus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found23
Studies independent surveys2
Countries3
Signal confidence: moderateweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 23 detections have coordinates
Open the map3 countries0
Coniferous forest
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median9.60 °C 1.50–14.4
Seasonal swing summer↔winter37.4 °C
Max temp (day)15.2 °C 4.20–17.8
Min temp (night)4.20 °C -1.60–10.1
Precipitation61.2 mm/mo 47.7–87.2
Air humidity61.4 % 54.4–68.5
Moisture balance-11.4 mm/mo -79.6–34.8
Vapour deficit632 Pa 216–762
Wind speed4.70 m/s 3.00–5.30
Cloud cover51.4 % 42.0–55.4
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 9 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation10 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility21 959 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI23 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics18 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
dukesphytochemcompounds
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗