Major plant communities of the Carson Desert (Nevada), North America's coldest and driest desert.

This paper describes the vegetation of the Carson Desert (Nevada, USA) based on a phytosociological analysis of its major plant associations, as determined by the Braun-Blanquet method. Diagnostic tables, climatic, edaphic, and biogeographical data were used to establish floristic affinities among identified plant communities and to interpret their distributions in zonal gradients. Their syntaxonomic positions in the classesAllenrolfeetea occidentalisandArtemisio tridentatae–Juniperetea osteospermae, and in the new classSarcobatetea vermiculatiwere also established. Three associations (Atriplici confertifoliae–Sarcobatetum baileyi,Atriplici canescentis–Psorothamnetum polydenii, andSuaedo moquinii–Sarcobatetum vermiculati) are described here for the first time along with the orderSarcobatetalia vermiculatiand the allianceSarcobation vermiculati. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]