Subalpine thermophile formations on often skeletal soils of the southern Alps, the Pyrenees and, very locally, the Central Massif and the Apennines.
Thermophile, luxuriant, relatively closed grasslands formed by the very tall, blue-grey Festuca paniculata (F. spadicea) on south-facing slopes (adrets) of the upper montane and lower subalpine levels of the Pyrenees, the southern Alps and, locally, the Central Massif and the Abruzzi; characteristic and often abundant accompanying species include Centaurea uniflora, Silene nutans, Trifolium montanum, Hieracium peleterianum, Hypochoeris maculata, Potentilla grandiflora, Lilium martagon, Eryngium alpinum, Luzula pediformis, Meum athamanticum, Nigritella nigra, Helictotrichon parlatorei, Asphodelus albus, Iris xiphioides, Paradisea liliastrum, Dianthus monspessulanus, Carduus defloratus. Many have been traditionally treated as hay meadows and are of extraordinary floristic richness; they are nowadays increasingly abandoned or left to grazing.