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.
Low-altitude middle European xerophile, rupicolous or psammophilous, grasslands of slightly calcareous substrates, with Festuca heteropachys, Festuca trachyphylla, Koeleria macrantha (Koeleria gracilis), Phleum phleoides, Luzula campestris, Dianthus deltoides, Jasione montana, Agrostis tenuis, Potentilla erecta, Armeria elongata, Artemisia campestris, Aster linosyris, Lychnis viscaria, Silene otites, Silene nutans, Chamaespartium sagittale, Campanula patula, Potentilla rupestris, Helianthemum nummularium ssp. obscurum, Helianthemum apenninum, Scleranthus perennis, Allium senescens ssp. montanum.