the coastal strip consists of sandy and clayey salt deserts recently exposed by the retreating shoreline. it has unconsolidated dunes and is sparsely vegetated with salt-loving plants. this area, with its milder climate and the mists that sometimes roll in from the caspian sea, is home to many of the 90 species of lichen found in the country. another lichen-rich environment is the takirs that form as flaking crusts on drying clayey plains.