Oligo- to mesotrophic mire occurring on the waterlogged margins of glacial lakes and around streams in the montane and subalpine belts of the Spanish Sierra Nevada, Corsica, and the western Balkan Peninsula (and also the High Atlas of Morocco). It develops on blankets of thin peat over siliceous bedrocks, kept constantly wet and cool (covered by snow in the high Balkan mountains for much of the year) and providing a splash of green in prevailingly dry landscapes. The vegetation is dominated by small sedges or graminoids often with distinctive endemic and relict species.