Perennial pioneer grasslands of coastal salt muds dominated by flat-leaved Spartina maritima (Spartina stricta), Spartina townsendii, Spartina anglica, Spartina alterniflora, distributed along Atlantic and North Sea coasts of middle Europe north to Denmark and south to northwestern Iberia, with outposts on the Atlantic coast of Africa around Tangier, Rabat and Cap Blanc, extending east to the Danish archipelago and with isolated areas of occurrence in the Mediterranean basin, located in the northern Adriatic, in the Venice Lagoon and nearby coasts, from the mouth of the Po to Trieste and Slovenia, and in estuaries of the coasts of northwestern Africa.