The alliance Scleranthion annui includes weed vegetation of cool and precipitation-rich areas, developing usually on acidic soils. It can also occur on wet or nutrient-poor soils in warmer and drier lowlands. The distribution range of this vegetation includes western, central and eastern Europe. Most often it develops in winter crops and recent fallows, but it can also occur in root-crop fields. Generally, in cooler and wetter areas where this vegetation occurs the difference in weed species composition between cereal and root-crop fields is smaller than in warm and dry areas.