Oromediterranean, slightly chionophilous mat-grass swards of Eastern Anatolia, Sterea Hellas, Southern Macedonia and Bulgaria
Trifolio anatolici-Polygonetea arenastri Quézel 1973
Trifolio anatolici-Polygonetea arenastri Quézel 1973
ana01 | The oro-mediterranean chionophilous mat-grass swards of the Trifolio-Polygonetea (Quézel 1973) are an ecological analogon to the Salicetea herbaceae, yet occurring at high altitudes of mountain ranges embedded within the Eastern Mediterranean or in some marginal ranges surrounded by the submediterraneean regions of the southwestern Balkans (Rila, Pirin, and possibly also some high mountain ranges of Macedonia). This vegetation occurs in depressions carrying snow cover longer than the surrounding alpine and/or oromediterranean grasslands, yet due to shallow, skeletal soils the habitats appear extremely dry during high-radiation summer. The ecological and geographical optimum of this class is in Anatolia (Turkey) but marginally some communities are reaching Europe, especially in Sterea Hellas and in the Macedonian-Bulgarian-Hellenic border triangle. The Trifolion parnassi (Trifolietalia parnassi; Quézel 1964), formerly classified wthin the Juncetea trifidi (or 'Caricetea curvulae'), belongs here as well as some communities with Alopecurus gerrardi, misplaced in the Salicetea herbaceae (e.g. Omalotheco-Alopecuretum gerrardi; Mucina et al. 1990). Some other communities listed as belonging to the Trifolio-Polygonetea, for instance by Lovrić & Rac (1989), do not qualify (see Mucina in Chytrý et al. 2015). At this stage, I fail to recognise the virtue of considering the Trifolio-Polygonetea as synonymous to the Anatolian Astragalo-Brometea as suggested by Parolly (2004). The taxonomic identity of 'Polygonum arenastrum' (one of the eponymous species) should be challenged. (L. Mucina).