Chihuahuan Mixed Salt Desert Scrub

Geology

Quaternary alluvium.

Landform

Depressional basins and river floodplains.

Soils

Salty desert grassland, Salty Clay Fan, and Salty Bottomland ecological sites.

Parent Description

This system usually occurs as an open-canopied shrubland surrounding saline basins, alluvial fans, and the salty bottomlands along the Pecos River. Substrates are fine-textured, alluvial, and saline. Species making up the often relatively sparse vegetative cover include Atriplex canescens (four-wing saltbush), Allenrolfea occidentalis (pickle-weed), Suaeda suffrutescens (desert seepweed), Cylindropuntia leptocaulis (tasajillo), Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana (western honey mesquite), Isocoma pluriflora (southern Jimmy-weed), Sesuvium verrucosum (winged sea purslane), Koeberlinia spinosa (allthorn), Atriplex acanthocarpa (tubercled saltbush), Flourensia cernua (tarbush), and Ziziphus obtusifolia (lotebush). Non-native halophiles such as Salsola tragus (prickly Russian thistle), Alhagi maurorum (camelthorn), Peganum harmala (African rue), and Tamarix spp. (saltcedars) are commonly encountered to dominant. Graminoids commonly found, and sometimes constituting significant cover, include Sporobolus airoides (alkali sacaton), Sporobolus wrightii (big sacaton), Distichlis spicata (saltgrass), Trichloris crinita (false Rhodes grass), Pappophorum bicolor (pink pappusgrass), Pleuraphis mutica (tobosa), and Scleropogon brevifolius (burrograss).