Habitat and Ecology
Aspropaxillus giganteus is a saprobe, occurring in open grassland areas near scattered trees, open woodland, meadows or commonly at the fringes between pastures and forests as well as by roadsides (Kaiser 1998, Ribeiro et al. 2008). The species usually produces sporocarps from late summer to late autumn, in groups or fairy rings.
Aspropaxillus giganteus has been observed at 11 sites in the country, dispersed in 8 biogeographic regions (Melovski et al. 2013), at elevation ranges between 600–1.500 m. Five of the known sites are located in national parks in the zone for sustainable use, as follows: Galicica – two sites, Mavrovo – two sites, Pelister – one site. The species is prominent but it has not been frequently recorded in the past. Therefore, given the knowledge on the species ecology and based on the availability of an appropriate habitat, an estimation of probable sites has been made (Dahlberg and Mueller 2011). The total number of sites is guesstimated to be by 3 to 5 times higher than the current number, resulting in ca. 30-55 sites.