Alpine and subalpine grasslands developed over crystalline rocks and other lime-deficient substrates or on decalcified soils of mountains. On boreal mountains, Carex bigelowii and Juncus trifidus often dominate. The acid alpine grasslands of central Europe are more mixed, with Armeria alpina, Armeria alliacea (Armeria montana), Euphrasia minima, Gentiana alpina, Geum montanum, Juncus trifidus, Lychnis alpina, Pedicularis pyrenaica, Phyteuma hemisphaericum, Pulsatilla alpina ssp. sulphurea, Ranunculus pyrenaeus, Sempervivum montanum, Botrychium lunaria.
Closed grasslands of deep, acid soils of the Alps, the Carpathians, the Pyrenees, the northern Apennines, the Jura and the higher Hercynian ranges, the northern and central Dinarides, developed mostly and abundantly in the subalpine level and included in the alliance Nardion, dominated or co-dominated by Nardus stricta, Festuca eskia, Festuca nigrescens, Festuca rubra, Alopecurus gerardii, Bellardiochloa violacea (Poa violacea), Carex sempervirens, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Hieracium alpinum, Trommsdorfia uniflora, Potentilla aurea. Similar Nardus stricta grasslands of the Moesian region of the Balkan peninsula, distributed at high elevations of the Balkan Range, the Rhodope Mountains, the Moeso-Macedonian mountains and the Pelagonides, as southern extensions of the Alpigenous communities or as grazing-induced facies of the more varied communities of unit E4.39.