These words, based on the Greek xeros for dry, are generally applicable to desert regions, usually to the vegetation (see Vegetation Markers and Landscapes, Vol. VI). Xerophile or xerophilous (adj.) means dry-loving or drought-loving organisms, such plants being characterized by various ecologic adaptations to desert life, such as excessively long roots, fleshy stems (cacti) or thin leaves (acacia). A xerophyte (xerophytic, adj.) is a xerophylous plant of any sort.
A vegetational community that commonly inhabits a particular environment such as soil, e.g., a pervious sandy soil that has very poor water-retaining capacity, is called a xerosere. In a similar climatic zone a clayey soil may well retain moisture, but excess evapotranspiration(q.v., Vol. II) causes capillary return to the atmosphere, resulting in the accumulation of salts (salts from weathering solution brought in by ephemeral streams and “cyclic salts” from the ocean); the resultant vegetation displaying...
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References
Bagnouls, F., and Gaussen, H., 1957, Les climats biologiques et leur classification, Ann. Géogr. (Paris), 66, 193–220.
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1968). Xerophile, xerophyte, xerosere . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_409
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