The present work is devoted to the study of the physicochemical characteristics of soils taken from the matorrals of the mountains of Tiaret (Western Algeria). Through the 24 samples analyzed, the results show that the color of all the samples is yellow-red (YR) with a texture that varies between sandy-loam, loam-clay-sandy and loamy, low humidity (2.28 ± 0.28%), a low to very low organic matter content (0.71 ± 0.54%) and a pH varying between neutral, slightly alkaline and alkaline (7.49 ± 0.31). The analyzed soils are generally not salty and have a low electrical conductivity (0.30 ± 0.07mS / cm), the limestone loads are very low to low (0.72 ± 0.54%). Three soil classes were defined by the ascending hierarchical classification (AHC) with percentages of (33.34%, 45.83% and 20.83%) respectively. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reveals that the first axis has a higher inertia rate of information with 41.21% followed by the second axis with 24.74%, the latter are very well correlated with the majority of the variables measured to confirm the shaping of the vegetation by these parameters. These finding would systematically lead to the land degradation and by consequence the regression of vegetation cover in these mountains, where, protection measures are obligatory.

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