The alliance Salicion elaeagno-daphnoidis includes shrubby vegetation on gravel beds of montane to submontane braided rivers with fast-flowing water and frequent strong but short floods. It occurs mainly in the Alps and the Carpathians, while it is rare and often fragmentary in the Czech Republic. Dominant species are willows adapted to these habitats, namely Salix elaeagnos and in places also S. daphnoides, Myricaria germanica and in the Alps also Hippophaë rhamnoides.