A systematic survey of grassland communities was performed in Hodrušská hornatina highland, in Štiavnické vrchy mountains. In the submitted paper, we have analysed ecological profile of grassland communities. We also evaluate the effect of environmental factors on species composition of grasslands. The dataset included 153 phytosociological relevés of grasslands recorded between 2013 and 2015. Grassland communities were classified within five associations: Holcetum lanati, Pastinaco sativae- Arrhenatheretum elatioris, Alchemillo-Arrhenatheretum elatioris, Anthoxantho odorati- Agrostietum tenuis, Onobrychido viciifoliae-Brometum erecti; and the successional and transitional stages belonging to alliances Arrhenatherion elatioris and Bromion erecti. The results of DCA support our assumption that the main environmental gradient in species composition on grasslands is related to moisture. The results of the direct gradient analysis (RDA) show that all used environmental variables explained 3.4 % of the variability of the species data. The most important factors affecting the data variation were altitude, slope, distance from settlements, and management.