Thermo-Alpigenous Festuca paniculata swards

Description (English)

Thermophile, luxuriant, relatively closed grasslands formed by the very tall, bluegrey Festuca paniculata (Festuca 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 peleteranum, 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.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification