Very low, single-stratum, carpets of trailing azalea, Loiseleuria procumbens, prostrate Vaccinium spp. or other prostrate ericoid shrublets, accompanied by lichens Cetraria islandica, Cladonia spp., of windswept, mostly snowfree, localities in the alpine belt of the high mountains of the Alpine system, with an outpost in the Balkan Peninsula: Šar planina (Kosovo).