AbstractWood‐decay fungi are important in forest ecosystems and play an important role in nutrient and carbon recycling. The scope of this research was to identify wood‐inhabiting and wood‐decay macrofungi and determine their ecology. We sampled standing trees and dead wood of oak and hornbeam in the northern forests of Iran, specifically in Mazandaran and Golestan provinces. We assessed the influence of field slope, elevation, site direction and the height of fungal sporocarp position on the tree. The species of wood‐inhabiting and wood‐decay fungi belonged to 11 families: Polyporaceae; Stereaceae; Ganodermataceae; Physalacriaceae; Agaricaceae; Xylariaceae; Pluteaceae; Coprinaceae; Strophariaceae; Pleurotaceae; and Hydnaceae. The most common fungal species identified belonged to the Polyporaceae and Ganodermataceae and predominantly grew on trees growing on a slope of 20%, at an altitude of 700–900 m, 0–3 m from the ground a southwesterly site direction and the northern sides of both tree species. These results indicated that field slope was the most important factor in determining fungal sporocarp abundance.