Thermo-Alpigenous [Festuca paniculata] swards

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.