Formations usually formed by Betula pendula, or, in the British Isles, Betula pubescens, with Deschampsia flexuosa, Agrostis capillaris (Agrostis tenuis), Festuca ovina, Vaccinium myrtillus, developed notably on sands, gravels, moraines and decalcified alluvions of nemoral northern and middle European plains and hills, as substitution facies of acidophilous oak woods (Fago-Quercetum, Blechno-Quercetum petraeae, Rusco-Quercetum, Luzulo-Quercetum), occasionally of oak-hornbeam woods (particularly mixed Atlantic bluebell oak forests, Endymio-Carpinetum), or colonization stages of dry heaths and decalcified dunes.