11a. Prose Description of Site: 

 SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHY 



East of the Light Ground Pocosin lie extensive level tracts 

 of hardwood forest, of which two examples of outstanding quality 

 are described here plus a third of local significance. These 

 examples represent the magnificent hardwood-dominated plant com- 

 munities which once occupied a major percentage of the county, 

 often fringing the peats and peaty mineral soils of the pocosins. 

 Because of the preponderance of oak species (Quercus) in the 

 canopy, these communities were termed "oak flats" by W. W. Ashe 

 (1894) ; the more general term "hardwood flats" recognizes the 

 common presence of a number of other hardwoods in addition to 

 oaks. 



Hardwood flats occur in Pamlico County primarily on the 

 mineral soils of the Leaf-Bayboro and Portsmouth-Torhunta 

 Associations. A suggestion of the original extent of the 

 hardwood flats may be gained from the fact that 47 percent 

 of the county area consists of these two soils associations 

 (SCS 1974, Appendix H) . Thus the hardwood stands associated 

 with these soils probably were once one of the most common 

 forest types in Pamlico County, and indeed are still common 

 today in a reduced and disturbed condition. 



Within the hardwood flats general habitat feature, herb, 

 shrub and tree species composition varies considerably from 

 one stand to the next (see detailed site description following) . 

 Soils characteristics control the composition at a given loca- 

 tion with cutting and other disturbances introducing secondary 

 variations. Internal soil drainage seems to be the most im- 

 portant natural determinant of plant communities on these ex- 

 tremely flat sites , which exhibit only poorly developed sur- 

 face drainage systems (streams) . 



Typically in the areas surveyed, deep and shallow peat 

 soils at slightly higher elevations bound the hardwood flats 

 soilscape on the wet end of the soil moisture gradient. 

 Mineral soils with a histic epipedon may be present also. 

 (These peat and mineral soils generally are on pocosin sites.) 

 Moving along the moisture gradient from hydric (saturated) 

 peat sites to wet-mesic and mesic (very poorly to moderately 

 well drained) sites, one finds a consistently arranged set of 

 mineral soils, ranging from wettest to driest. Usually two 

 or three mineral soil series are mapped across the moisture 

 gradient, although the best-drained series is often mostly 

 cleared for cropland. Elevation continues to fall very 

 gently toward the better drained soils; the elevational 



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