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, S. bavarica, S. capillata, S. pulcherrima, Phleum phleoides, Brachypodium pinnatum, Carex humilis, Fumana procumbens, Globularia punctata, Ononis pusilla, Helianthemum apenninum, H. canum, H. nummularium, Linum tenuifolium, Teucrium chamaedrys, Allium sphaerocephalon, Arabis hirsuta, Anthericum liliago, Aster linosyris, Pulsatilla vulgaris, Biscutella laevigata, Orobanche teucrii, Artemisia alba, Sedum album, S. acre, Acinos arvensis, Hippocrepis comosa, Sanguisorba minor, Potentilla neumanniana, Scabiosa columbaria, Astragalus monspessulanus, Teucrium pyrenaicum, Ononis spinosa, O. natrix.
Formations of southern Belgium, Germany, France, northern Spain and the northern Apennines. Where they occur in the vicinity of communities of the Festucetalia valesiacae, the latter occupy cites with more continental microclimates than those inhabited by the formations of this group.