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Although research has demonstrated that spontaneous succession of vegetation can be useful for the restoration of post-mining sites, spontaneous succession has only rarely been taken advantage of because of its low predictability. Spontaneous succession is difficult to predict because it depends, especially in the first stages, on many stochastic processes. Our goal was to determine whether the succession can be predicted based on the study of the chronosequence (space for time substitution) and whether the predictability of spontaneous succession can be improved by inventorying the plant community at disturbed sites during the initial stages of succession. After investigating successional changes by annual resampling of 50 permanent plots during 8 years (2007–2014) at chronosequence of five post-mining sites (created in 1965, 1987, 1990, 1995, and 2003) and located in the Sokolov coal mining district …