Permanent grasslands deliver several agronomic and environmental services that are strongly, but not only, linked to vegetation composition. Vegetation composition can be described by several criteria that can be classified in terms of botanical (presence, dominance) and functional (reproduction, survival, dissemination strategies) features of species. We aimed to estimate the role of pedoclimatic and management factors on these features by setting predictive models. 190 permanent grasslands were studied on a large gradient of conditions in France. Functional composition (FC) was assessed through leaf dry matter content, date of flowering, oligotrophic species richness, and proportions of entomophilous species, and of grasses, legumes and forbs. Botanical composition (BC) was mainly influenced by pedoclimatic factors, whereas FC was influenced by pedoclimatic and management factors. Interactions between factors have to be taken into account to predict the characteristics of vegetation. The number of factors for a correct prediction of BC is more important (11 to 12) than for FC (2 to 7), and the prediction quality of models shows differences between BC and FC. Finally, it appears that BC and FC cannot be predicted from the same factors or combinations of factors.