Medio-European dry slope sedge beech forests

Beech woods occupying dry limestone slopes and areas of low precipitation of sub-Atlantic Western Europe, south and west to the Charentes and Normandy, of the Jura, the northwestern, northern, eastern and southern pre-Alps, of the Hercynian arc and neighbouring regions and of the western Carpathian hills, with an often rich shrub layer constituted by [Sorbus aria], [Ligustrum vulgare], [Viburnum lantana], [Rosa arvensis], [Lonicera xylosteum], [Daphne mezereum], [Berberis vulgaris], [Acer campestre], [Buxus sempervirens], and an herb layer rich in sedges, [Carex digitata], [Carex flacca], [Carex montana], [Carex alba], grasses, [Brachypodium sylvaticum], [Bromus benekenii], orchids, [Neottia nidus-avis], [Cephalanthera rubra], [Cephalanthera damasonium], [Epipactis] spp. The unit is composed of many highly distinctive and conservation-significant local variants.