Unicoi soil and landscape

Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Unicoi soil series in North Carolina.

 

Landscape: These soil are on low and intermediate mountain slopes and ridges..

 

Geomorphic Component: Mountain top, mountain flank, and side slope.

Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, and backslope.

Parent Material Origin: Low-grade metasedimentary rock such as arkose, metagraywacke, metasandstone, or quartzite; rock outcrops are common in most areas.

Parent Material Kind: Residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper solum.

Slope: Typically 15 to 75 percent, but range from 8 to 95 percent.

Elevation: 366 to 1,463 meters; (1,200 to 4,800 feet).

Frost-free period: 130 to 210 days.

Mean Annual Air Temperature: 8 to 14 degrees C (46 to 57 degrees F).

Mean Annual Precipitation: 1,300 millimeters (51 inches) near the Type Location.

 

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, mesic Lithic Dystrudepts

 

USE AND VEGETATION:

Major Uses: Woodland.

Dominant Vegetation: Where wooded--pitch pine, table mountain pine, Virginia pine, chestnut oak, scarlet oak, and hemlock. Understory species are dominantly mountain laurel, flowering dogwood, and sourwood.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:

Distribution: Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130-B) of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia

Extent: Large--More than 100,000 acres.

 

Unicoi soils formerly were included in the Ramsey series and classified in Lithosols great soil group.

 

For a detailed description, visit:

soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/U/UNICOI.html

 

For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:

casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#unicoi

 

Done