Abstract Twenty taxa of fossil plants are described from the Sangonghe Formation (Lower Jurassic) of the Haojiagou section in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, NW China. The Sangonghe flora consists of Equisetales, ferns, bennettitaleans, ginkgoes, conifers and gnetales, but is dominated by ferns. It is a low-species-diversity but extraordinary flora as it has a high proportion (45%) of thermophilous or arid-tolerant (xerophilous) elements, in comparison to 0% in the underlying Badaowan Formation and c. 2% in the overlying Xishanyao Formation. These thermophilous or arid-tolerant (xerophilous) elements include Marattiopsis asiatica Kawasaki, Phlebopteris polypodioides Brongniart and Dictyophyllum sp. (ferns), Otozamites leckenbyi Harris, Otozamites sp., Zamites sp. and Dictyozamites sp. (bennettitaleans), Brachyphyllum ( Hirmeriella ?) sp. (conifers) and Cadmisega ephedroides Krassilov and Bugdaeva (gnetales). Based on the geological ranges of the known species and comparisons with coeval floras in Eurasia, the age of the Sangonghe flora is Toarcian (Early Jurassic). The flora reveals a climatic warming and aridification event that occurred during the Toarcian in the Junggar Basin. Palaeontological (including palaeobotanical and palynological), sedimentological and geochemical data demonstrate that warming and aridification occurred widely across the north of China during the Toarcian, and that this might be the response of the terrestrial ecosystem to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event.