Edaphic characters of Brachypodium communities on the Alps and the Apennines

Grassland communities with Brachypodium cespitosum, B. genuense, or B. rupestre, distributed along Alps and Apennines were analysed, considering soil edaphic measures. Submitted to both principal components and cluster analysis six groups of relevés resulted, whose edaphic structure was compared to nominal characters. As a confirmation of results, stepwise discriminant analysis showed the edaphic characters responsible of the different species presence in the grasslands. As results, Brachypodium rupestre seems to be present on more basic soils, rich of clay, whereas B. genuense grows on more acid soils, rich in nourishment, and B. cespitosum seems to be in an intermediate position. The type of growth then, seems to depend strongly on the edaphic soil conditions.