The heavy texture and unstable behaviour of the soil makes it difficult for many tree species to grow, and forest is uncommon.

Vertisols have a high content of expansive clay minerals, many of them belonging to the montmorillonites that form deep cracks in drier seasons or years.

Vertisols typically form from highly basic rocks, such as basalt, in climates that are seasonally humid or subject to erratic droughts and floods, or that impeded drainage.

Other areas where vertisols are dominant include southern Texas and adjacent Mexico, central India, northeast Nigeria, Thrace, New Caledonia and parts of eastern China.

[citation needed] Rainfed farming is very difficult because vertisols can be worked only under a very narrow range of moisture conditions: they are very hard when dry and very sticky when wet.