Quartz fields of southern Africa present an edaphically arid special habitat. The soil surface of quartz fields is densely covered with white quartz sand gravel. The vegetation and flora of quartz fields are characterised by a special growth form spectrum comprising a highly percentage succulent dwarf shrubs. The present study shows that different growth form types of the quartz fields have different edaphic habitat preferences. With increasing content of salt and stones in soil as well as decreasing soil depth the abundance of dwarf growth forms increases. The smaller the growth forms, the more specialised are their edaphical habitat preferences. Therefore, the high dominance of dwarf growth forms is interpreted as an adaptation to the edaphic aridity of this special habitat. Due to microclimatic properties of the quartz fields, the daily maximum temperatures of the air near the ground is relatively lower than of the neighbouring soils without quartz cover. The lower maximum temperatures seem to mitigate the growing conditions of the low growing growth forms on the quartz fields.