Diverse, often extensive, calcareous fen communities of Central Europe, with Carex davalliana, Carex hostiana, Carex lepidocarpa, Carex capillaris, Carex panicea, Carex nigra, Carex demissa, Carex flava, Carex pulicaris, Eriophorum latifolium, Blysmus compressus, Schoenus ferrugineus, Eleocharis quinqueflora, Juncus articulatus, Juncus subnodulosus, Scirpus cespitosus, Molinia caerulea, Tofieldia calyculata, Allium schoenoprasum, Potentilla erecta, Swertia perennis, Primula farinosa, Parnassia palustris, Pinguicula vulgaris and a moss layer often dominated by brown mosses. They have their greatest species diversity in Alpine and peri-Alpine regions, and are represented by impoverished outlyers north to the middle European Hercynian system. Small sedges are usually abundant and dominance may be mixed or achieved by species of genus Carex, in particular, Carex davalliana, by Eriophorum latifolium or by Scirpus cespitosus. Vegetation of alliances Caricion davallianae and Sphagno warnstorfiani-Tomenthypnion.
Carex davalliana calcareous fens of northern Central Europe, north of the Jura, the Bohemian Quadrangle and the Carpathians, recorded, in particular, from the central German Hercynian ranges and hills, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.