At the European scale, phytosociological characteristics can be used to identify grasslands that should be preserved. However, phytosociological data do not provide the agronomic information that farmers need. To deal with this issue, an agronomic classification system based on species diversity was developed. Then, functional classification was employed to provide additional information. Our study looked at 252 permanent grasslands in the Vosges mountain range (located in northeastern France). We compared the usefulness of these 3 classification approaches (phytosociological, agronomic, and functional) for predicting the agronomic and ecological characteristics of grasslands and describing their environmental context. The results showed that agronomic classification by itself was the best system for predicting certain grassland characteristics. However, coupling 2 or all 3 classification systems often enhanced prediction quality.