Many unique adaptations to the extreme heat and lack of moisture enable some plants to survive. Plants adapted to drought are called xerophytes. Aridisol soils, common to deserts, are typically coarse, lack much organic material, and are often weakly developed. The dry deserts are typically found in subtropical latitudes and are produced by subsidence associated with the eastern sides of the subtropical high. These are extremely dry regions, some places hardly receiving any measurable precipitation during the year.
Plant cover is non-existent over much of the dry desert.
Like many dry deserts, a layer of coarse material blankets the surface. When disturbed, wind easily dislodges particles and transports them away in a process called deflation . This makes the establishment of plants very difficult. Plants occur only under the most favorable microclimatic settings like those surrounding an oasis . Oases are created where the water table is near the surface.