Mostly closed Carex curvula, Festuca spp., Oreochloa spp. or Juncus trifidus grasslands on siliceous soils of the alpine level of the Alps and the Pyrenees, with very local outposts in the great Hercynian ranges and the Cantabrian Range. Androsace obtusifolia, A. carnea ssp. laggeri, Campanula barbata, Juncus jacquinii, J. trifidus, Silene exscapa, Gentiana alpina, Achillea erba-rotta, Euphrasia minima, Luzula lutea, L. spicata, L. hispanica, Lychnis alpina, Minuartia recurva, M. sedoides, Pedicularis kerneri, P. pyrenaica, Phyteuma globulariifolium, Ph. hemisphaericum, Potentilla frigida, Armeria alpina, Senecio incanus, Trifolium alpinum, Veronica bellidioides, Ranunculus pyrenaicus are characteristic.
Formations of the upper and middle alpine levels of the Alps, of the upper alpine level of the eastern Pyrenees and of the alpine level of the central and western Pyrenees, to which the dominance of the crooked sedge, Carex curvula, with twisted leaves whithering early at the tip, gives a highly distinctive texture and yellow-brown hue.