Helleno-Moesian Quercus dalechampii forests.

Description (English)

Quercus dalechampii-dominated forests of the hills and mountain slopes of the mountains of north eastern Greece including the Pindus, the Moeso-Macedonian mountains, the Rhodope Mountains. They include, in particular, the xero-mesophile Quercus dalechampii-dominated forests, sometimes mixed with Quercus cerris, Quercus frainetto or Fraxinus excelsior, with Carpinus orientalis, Ostrya carpinifolia or Fraxinus ornus often present and sometimes abundant, widespread in the durmast oak-hornbeam, 600-1200 metre, belt of the Rhodope and the Moeso-Macedonian mountains, drier than the Carpinus betulus-Quercus dalechampii forests of unit T1E1C3. Ruscus aculeatus is often present and sometimes subdominant in their undergrowth. They also include local formations of the upper supra-Mediterranean level of northern and middle Greece, mostly of the Pindus and of crystalline or metamorphic ranges of the southern Moeso-Macedonian and Rhodope mountains, likewise altitudinally inserted between Quercus frainetto and beech forests.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification