On the Great Hungarian Plain, the correlation between soil variables and plant data was studied in a heterogeneous solonetzic grassland. A 21-in transect was sampled to identify the basic features of the soil-plant correlations. The abrupt change from nonsaline meadow to salt-affected grassland vegetation was explained by the sharp increase in the sodium concentration of the groundwater. Two 50-m transects were sampled, and the relationship between soil variables and plant data was used to predict soil variables. The observed data of the 50-m long transects were divided into two groups of plants, one used for the multiple regression equations and the other used as a check. When comparing the efficiency of various groups of variables for estimation, plant cover data was only half as precise as the soil data.