Cushion-forming thermo-Mediterranean sclerophyllous formations, often thorny and summer deciduous. They are best developed in the eastern Mediterranean, where they may occupy considerable surfaces in coastal areas and occasionally inland. They also include a few rare, relict associations of the west Mediterranean, mostly characteristic of the edge of seashores and of maritime cliffs, where they constitute an often narrow belt between the cliff communities and thermo-Mediterranean brushes, incorporating, in addition to characteristic, often endemic or very rare, hemispherical cushion-forming species, an admixture of species belonging to these two vegetation complexes.