Chihuahuan Stabilized Coppice Dune and Sand Flat Scrub

Geology

Aeolian sands associated with the Salt Basin west of the Guadalupe Mountains and the Hueco Bolson east of El Paso.

Landform

Rolling sand hills and hummocky sandy flats.

Soils

Sand Hill and Deep Sand Ecological Sites.

Parent Description

This system includes shrubby sites on coppice dunes associated with aeolian sands of the Trans-Pecos, often resulting from degradation of grasslands of the North American Warm Desert Active and Stabilized Dunes or the Chihuahuan Sandy Plains Semi-Desert Grassland. Prosopis glandulosa (honey mesquite) and Artemisia filifolia (sand sage) are the commonest dominants, but other woody species include Yucca elata (soaptree yucca), Cylindropuntia imbricata (tree cholla), Atriplex canescens (four-wing saltbush), and Ephedra spp. (mormon-tea). Herbaceous species of the adjacent grasslands are common.