Wedged between the arable Hetao region to the north and the Loess Plateau to the south, the soil of the Ordos Desert is mostly a mixture of dry clay and sand, and as a result is poorly suited for agriculture.

[4] Eventually the sand dunes cross over to the left bank of the Yellow River where they are threaded by the beds of dry watercourses.

Among the sand dunes in the north, shrubs including Hedysarum scoparium and Calligonum arborescens grow in scattered patches.

Native grasses and herbs include Bromus inermis, Agropyron mongolicum, A. cristatum, Festuca arundinacea, Elymus dahuricus, Melilotus albus, M. officinalis, Lotus corniculatus, Pugionium cornutum, Astragalus adsurgens, and Filifolium sibiricum.

On the left bank of the Huang He, level spaces amongst the dry river beds are studded with little mounds (9 cm to 1.8 m high), on which grow stunted Nitraria schoberi and Zygophyllum.

In the Yin Mountains, forests begin at altitudes of 1,600 m and wild flowers grow in great profusion and variety in summer, though with a striking lack of color.

During the Holocene Climatic Optimum the monsoonal rains that reached the Loess Plateau in the modern era pushed the desert back to the Yellow River.

However, the most disastrous damage to the environment was caused by the political movements launched by Mao Zedong, namely the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, during which the thin line of fragile vegetation separating the Kubuqi and Maowusu deserts was destroyed.

Subsequent pressure of population and the increase in sheep/goats/cattle further damaged the already weakened local environment to the point of no return, and as a result, the two deserts finally linked up in the 1990s, forming the larger current-day Ordos.