The discontinuous distribution of gypsum outcrops plays an important role in isolating and forming their edaphic floral communities. We know from insular island-biogeographic-studies that distance among islands plays an important role in selection for specific dispersal syndromes, but are different dispersal syndromes more common among the discontinuous gypsum outcrops? We hypothesize that selection can either favor dispersal syndromes associated with long distance dispersal or, alternatively, syndromes associated with limited dispersal. To determine whether selection has favored dispersal syndromes associated with long distance dispersal or limited dispersal, we compared the composition of dispersal syndromes among gypsum outcrops to paired sites of nearby non-gypsum communities. Presence and absence data were collected for 374 sites (187 paired sites in total) in southern New Mexico and eastern Arizona. Dispersal syndromes were assigned for all species using the following categories: anemochory (wind), epizoochory (attachment to animal), endozoochory (ingested by animal), achory (no discernable dispersal), hydrochory (water), ballochory (ballistic), barochory (gravity), myrmecochory (ant), and synzochory (scatter-hoarding). Each syndrome was analyzed separately using a paired t-test between gypsum and non-gypsum sites. To infer the relationship between dispersal syndrome frequency and gypsum site association, a chi-square test was conducted for all gypsum and non-gypsum sites. Dispersal syndrome frequency was significantly different between the site types. Anemochory and synzoochory was significantly more common on gypsum sites than non-gypsum sites. Conversely, epizoochory and myrmecochory was more common on non-gypsum sites than gypsum sites. Finally, the dispersal syndrome endozoochory, achory, hydrochory, ballochory, and barochory were not significantly different between gypsum or non-gypsum sites. Our results suggest that an ecological filter likely selects for particular syndromes either at the dispersal or evolutionary stage.