This vegetation type is most common in man-made habitats, especially wet fields, around persistent puddles on dirt roads, in sand pits, abandoned peat extraction sites, stone quarries and fishpond margins. Substrates are acidic and poor in nutrients. This vegetation requires a high amount of precipitation before, and possibly also during, the growing season of wetland annuals, therefore it is found mainly in the areas of western Europe that are influenced by oceanic climate. In central Europe this vegetation type is mainly found on wet sites in forested areas and near water bodies. In the Czech Republic, it occurs most frequently in the Třeboň basin of southern Bohemia, and scattered localities are also found in some other areas of the Bohemian Massif.