Forests of Betula pubescens or Betula carpatica on peaty, humid and very acid soils, colonizing bogs of reduced peat building activity and acid fens of the boreal, sub-boreal and nemoral zones, very locally of the wooded steppe and steppe zones, with Molinia caerulea, Vaccinium spp., Empetrum nigrum, Trientalis europaea, Eriophorum vaginatum and many sphagna e.g. Sphagnum fallax, Sphagnum magellanicum, mosses and liverworts.
Sphagnum-rich Betula pubescens or Betula carpatica woods of the boreal and nemoral western Palaearctic in which the presence of species characteristic of subhumid mineral soils indicate a transition towards acidophilous birch and oak woods; Salix cinerea, Alnus glutinosa, Lysimachia vulgaris, Luzula sylvatica, Oxalis acetosella, Deschampsia flexuosa may be prominent, next to Molinia caerulea. Conifers, mostly Picea abies, may participate in the canopy of boreal and sub-boreal communities.