This study examined the relationships between botani-cal composition and forage parameters (yield and for-age quality variables) in 153 permanent grasslandslocated in the Massif Central of France. Grasslandswere sampled at two vegetation stages in the firstgrowth cycle. Botanical composition, yield, ash, crudeprotein, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre,acid detergent lignin, organic matter digestibility(OMD) and voluntary intake (VI) were estimated foreach sample. Temporal variability in species–forageparameter relationships were accounted for usinginnovative multivariate analyses applied mainly inecological science. Crude protein and OMD wereweakly correlated when each harvest time was analy-sed separately. Species–forage parameter relationshipsremained stable during the first growth cycle. The sta-bility of these relationships indicates that permanentgrasslands dominated by competitive species wereassociated with high yield and forage quality valueswhereas permanent grasslands composed of conserva-tive species and/or high proportions of senescentmaterial were associated with high structural carbohy-drate values and low yield, OMD and VI values. Basedon these relationships, we propose a typology of per-manent grasslands along with a set of indicator speciesenabling non-specialist botanists to easily classifygrasslands for grassland management purposes.