Perennial grasslands, often nutrient-poor and species-rich, on calcareous and other basic soils of the nemoral and steppe zones and of adjacent parts of the subboreal and submediterranean zones. Includes the calcareous grasslands of central and western Europe, alvar grasslands of the Baltic region, and basic grasslands of the steppe zone. Vegetation communities of Festuco-Brometea.
Xerophile, open formations dominated by perennial, tuft-forming grasses, often rich in chamaephytes, colonizing superficial calcareous soils, often on steep slopes, clifftops or hilltops, in the sub-Atlantic domain of the Quercion pubescentii-petraeae and its northern irradiations and in the sub-Mediterranean mountains of the northern Italian peninsula, with Bromus erectus, Sesleria albicans, Koeleria vallesiana, Melica ciliata, Stipa pennata, Stipa bavarica, Stipa capillata, Stipa pulcherrima, Phleum phleoides, Brachypodium pinnatum, Carex humilis, Fumana procumbens, Globularia punctata, Ononis pusilla, Helianthemum apenninum, Helianthemum canum, Helianthemum nummularium, Linum tenuifolium, Teucrium chamaedrys, Allium sphaerocephalon, Arabis hirsuta, Anthericum liliago, Aster linosyris, Pulsatilla vulgaris, Biscutella laevigata, Orobanche teucrii, Artemisia alba, Sedum album, Sedum acre, Acinos arvensis, Hippocrepis comosa, Sanguisorba minor, Potentilla neumanniana, Scabiosa columbaria, Astragalus monspessulanus, Teucrium pyrenaicum, Ononis spinosa, Ononis natrix.