LOCATION BEETREE TN+KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Beetree channery loam--on a wooded convex 45 percent slope on the upper part of a steep mountain flank. (Colors are for moist soils.)
A--0 to 6 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; 20 percent flat subangular indurated (2-100 millimeters) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches)
AB--6 to 12 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common medium roots; 20 percent flat subangular indurated (2-100 millimeters) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches)
Bw1--12 to 34 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) channery silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common coarse roots;25 percent flat subangular indurated (2-250 millimeters) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 18 inches)
Bw2--34 to 48 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) very channery silt loam; moderate coarse angular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 40 percent flat subangular indurated (2-250 millimeters) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (12 to 20 inches)
2BC1--48 to 62 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silty clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent flat subangular noncemented (2-50 millimeters) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (12 to 30 inches)
2BC2--62 to 75 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) clay; moderate medium platy structure; firm; common fine roots; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent flat subangular noncemented (2-50 millimeter) sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 18 inches)
2Cr--75 to 85 inches; strongly acid; interbedded shale and siltstone; moderate excavation difficulty.
TYPE LOCATION: Overton County, Tennessee; two miles north of Crawford, Tennessee; 300 feet east of U.S. Highway 85 on Cub Mountain in a logging road cut: Latitude: 36 degrees, 18 minutes, 0 seconds North; Longitude: 85 degrees, 09 minutes, 57 seconds West; NAD83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to lithologic discontinuity ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Depth to hard bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Coarse fragments, mostly sandstone, range from 5 to 35 percent in individual horizons. Below the lithologic discontinuity, rock fragments range from 15 to 60 percent in the colluvial component and less than 15 percent in the residual component. Surface stones commonly cover from 0.1 to 2 percent of most areas. Reaction ranges from very strongly to moderately acid.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture of the fine-earth is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam.
The AB, BA, or BE transition horizons, where present, have hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture of the fine-earth is silt loam, loam, or sandy loam.
Bw horizons have hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. Texture of the fine-earth is loam, clay loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
The 2Bt, 2BC, and 2CB horizons, where present, have hues of 2.5Y to 5YR, values of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. Texture of the fine-earth is silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay. A 2C horizon with similar colors and textures is present in some pedons weathered from soft shale.
The 2Cr is interbedded sandstone, siltstone, and shale with moderate to very high excavation difficulty.
COMPETING SERIES: These are presently no other members of this family. The Ayersville, Citico, Kimper, Muskingum, and Pipestem (T) series are members of a similar family with mixed mineralogy. Ayersville and Muskingum soils are moderately deep to bedrock. Citico soils formed in colluvium weathered from metasedimentary rocks such and phyllite, slate and slightly metamorphosed shale, siltstone, or sandstone. Kimper soils have darker and thicker surface epipedons.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Beetree soils are on steep mountain slopes, often below sandstone escarpments, that range from 12 to 60 percent. These soils formed in loamy colluvium weathered from interbedded Pennsylvanian aged sandstone, siltstone, and shale spilling downslope over Mississippian aged clayey residuum. Near the type location, the mean annual precipitation is 52.3 inches, and the mean annual temperature is 56.9 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Bouldin, Gilpin, Grimsley, Jefferson, Lily, Muse, Sequoia, Varilla and Zenith soils. The Bouldin, Gilpin, Jefferson, Lily, Muse, and Sequoia soils have argillic horizons. Gilpin, Jefferson, and Lily soils are commonly located at higher elevations above sandstone escarpments. Gilpin, Lily, and Sequoia soils are moderately deep to bedrock. Bouldin, Grimsley, and Varilla soils are on similar landscapes, but they have higher coarse fragment contents. Muse and Sequoia soils are fine and located on convex slopes where the colluvial mantle is thin or nonexistent. Zenith soils are in deep coves with cool aspects and they have a thicker and darker surface layer.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained with moderate permeability in the upper colluvial mantle and slow permeability in the underlying residuum. Landslides are a hazard when the natural slopes are disturbed or undercut.
USE AND VEGETATION: The area is almost entirely forested. Major trees are yellow poplar, upland oaks, hickories and maples.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The western Cumberland Plateau in southern Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: 2008, as part of the MLRA 122 update of the Cumberland Plateau and escarpment.
REMARKS: The Beetree series was formerly included with the Jefferson, Pineville, and Shelocta series. The series was established to differentiate areas occurring along the Pennington (Paragon) geologic formation that have significant clay increase in the lower solum. The Pennington Formation is a Mississippian aged siltstone, shale and fine-grained sandstone that can be identified by its distinctive shades of purple, green, and red.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: 0 to 6 inches
Cambic horizon: 12 to 75 inches
Paralithic contact: 75 inches
ADDITIONAL DATA: Characterization samples including this pedon from the NSSL: S06TN133044, S06TN133045, and S06TN133046