The basic requirement for recognition of an orthent is that any former soil has been either completely removed or so truncated that characteristics typical of all orders other than entisols are absent.
Most orthents are found in very steep, mountainous regions where erodible material is so rapidly removed by erosion that a permanent covering of deep soil cannot establish itself.
In Australia and a few regions of Africa, orthents occur in flat terrain because the parent rock contains absolutely no weatherable minerals except short-lived additions from rainfall, so that there is no breaking down of the minerals (chiefly iron oxides) in the rock.
In those on ancient, flat terrain, dry grassland, savanna, or rarely, rainforest can prevail.
Because of their extreme shallowness and, usually, steepness and consequent high erosion hazard, orthents are not suitable for arable farming.