A savanna community with canopy canopy averaging 25-60% that occurs on nearly level outcrops of calcareous bedrock (limestone and dolomite). The community consists of a mosaic of shrub savanna, grass savanna, and rock outcrop vegetation. The trees are either widely spaced or in small clusters; they are usually rooted in rock crevices.

Characteristic trees include eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), white ash (Fraxinus americana), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white pine (Pinus strobus), shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), eastern hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), white spruce (Picea glauca), basswood (Tilia americana), American elm (Ulmus americana), rock elm (U. thomasii), and pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica). Many of the shrubs occur in dense thickets; they are rooted either in rock crevices or in shallow soil over bedrock. Characteristic shrubs include gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), downy arrowwood (Viburnum rafinesquianum), common juniper (Juniperus communis), round leaf dogwood (Cornus rugosa), juneberry (Amelanchier spp.), poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), meadow rose (Rosa blanda), wild honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica), buffalo berry (Shepherdia canadensis), and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus). The groundlayer in the grass savanna areas is quite diverse. Characteristic herbs include poverty grass (Danthonia spicata), panic grasses (Panicum flexile, P. philadelphicum), sedges (Carex pensylvanica, C. eburnea, C. aurea), slender spikerush (Eleocharis elliptica var. elliptica), bastard toadflax (Comandra umbellata), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana), pale bluets (Hedyotis longifolia), penstemon (Penstemon hirsutus), upland white aster (Solidago ptarmicoides), balsam groundsel (Senecio pauperculus), wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), blue phlox (Phlox divaricata), aster (Aster ciliolatus), and goldenrod (Solidago hispida). Fruticose and foliose lichens are locally common in the grassy areas, including Cladina rangiferina, C. mitis, Peltigera canina, and Cetraria arenaria. The numerous small exposures of bedrock have a distinctive flora of lichens, mosses, and small herbs, much like the outcrops in an alvar grassland. Characteristic species of rock outcrops include the lichens Cladonia pocillum and Placynthium nigrum; the mosses Tortella tortuosa, Tortula ruralis, Ceratodon purpureus, Grimmia apocarpa, and Bryum argenteum; and several herbs: southern hairgrass (Agrostis hiemalis), early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis), small skullcap (Scutellaria parvula var. leonardii), and false pennyroyal (Trichostema brachiatum).

Known examples of this community have been found at elevations between 130 feet and 400 feet.