LOCATION CHUMMY CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, nonacid, frigid Typic Humaquepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Chummy silty clay loam - range. (Colors for dry conditions unless otherwise noted).
O1--2 to 0 inches; a tangled mat of roots and decaying organic matter with little mineral soil material; strongly acid (ph 5.3); abrupt smooth lower boundary. (2 to 8 inches thick)
A11--0 to 10 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) silty clay loam near silty clay, black (10YR 2/1) moist; strong medium subangular blocky structure; hard, friable, slightly plastic and slightly sticky; abundant very fine roots; many very fine pores strongly acid (pH 5.5); clear wavy lower boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
A12g--10 to 23 inches; light gray (10YR 6/1) light clay loam, gray (10YR 5/1) moist; nearly massive; slightly hard, friable, nonplastic and nonsticky; plentiful very fine roots; common very fine and medium tubular vesicular and interstitial pores; medium acid (pH 5.8); abrupt smooth lower boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
C1--23 to 29 inches; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) loam, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable, slightly plastic and slightly sticky; few very fine roots; common very fine tubular pores, few vesicular pores; few fine reddish brown soft iron concretions, thin, discontinuous layer about 1/4 inch thick near base of this horizon; medium acid (ph 5.7); clear smooth lower boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
C2g--29 to 39 inches; prominently mottled light gray, gray and yellowish brown (10YR 7/1, 5/1, and 5/8) clay loam with some irregularly shaped, hard yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) concretions, gray, grayish brown, and brown (10YR 5/1, 5/2, and 4/3) concretions, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable, slightly plastic, slightly sticky; few very fine roots; common very fine tubular pores; medium acid (pH 5.8); abrupt smooth lower boundary. (2 to 10 inches thick)
C3g--39 to 60 inches; prominently mottled light gray, pale yellow with yellowish brown concretions (2.5Y 7/2, 7/4 with 10YR 5/8) light clay loam, greenish gray and dark yellowish brown (5GY 5/1 and 10YR 4/4) moist (color is light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) upon drying and rewetting); massive; slightly hard, friable although is slightly brittle when first displaced, slightly plastic and slightly sticky; few very fine roots; few very fine tubular pores; very strongly acid (ph 5.0).
TYPE LOCATION: Tehama County, California; center of NW 1/4 of SW 1/4 of sec. 28, T. 29 N., R. 5 E., about 200 feet from the northwest corner of Wilson Lake in eastern Tehama County. Level depression at 5,000 feet elevation under sedges, grasses and forbs.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The A11 horizon ranges from very dark gray to very dark grayish brown dry and very dark brown to black moist; the texture from silty clay loam, clay loam, and loam; in reaction, slightly acid to strongly acid. The A12 may be the same or lighter colored and medium to very strongly acid.
The A horizons have less than 50 percent base saturation.
The C horizons range in color from light brownish gray, light gray and pale brown with mottles ranging in color from 5YR to 5Y and 5B hues. Textures range from loam, clay loam, silty clay loam, and may have this strata of silty clay and clay below 40 inches with or without gravels, cobbles, and stones. The reaction in the C ranges form medium acid to very strongly acid with no reaction trend.
COMPETING SERIES: These are Childs and Gansner. The Childs soils are well drained and lack mottles in the upper C horizons. Gansner soils have mollic epipedons and are slightly acid to neutral throughout.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Chummy soils occur in basins or nearly level meadows in the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Warner Mountains of California. The sediments are from a wide range of volcanic rocks, including basalt, andesite, and rhyolite. They are stratified but predominantly of moderately fine texture. The soils occur at elevations of 4,000 to 6,000 feet in a humid microthermal climate having a mean annual precipitation of 45 to 60 inches, with cool, nearly rainless summers and cold wet winters. Snow covers most of the area from November to March. The average January temperature is 32 degrees F, the average July temperature is 63 degrees F, with an average annual temperature of 45 degrees F. The average frost-free season is 80 to 90 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The Chummy soils occur in the same general area as the Lyonsville, Lytton, Childs, Windy and Yollabolly soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly and very poorly drained; runoff is very slow; permeability is moderate. The depth of the water table varies but is usually within 10 inches of the surface in the early summer and may drop below 5 feet in the fall. During the winter months the soil is saturated and partly frozen.
USE AND VEGETATION: Excellent summer range for cattle and sheep. Vegetation consists of a dense growth of forbs and grass; forbs include sedges, rushes, Spanish clover and other water-loving plants; grasses include bluejoint, slender muhly, and alpine timothy.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: High elevation wet meadows of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and Warner Mountains of California. The soils are inextensive (less than 10,000 acres).
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Soil survey of Tehama County, California, 1962. Names for Chummy Meadow in eastern Tehama County, California.
REMARKS: The soils were formerly classified in the Humic Gley group. The present classification is based on soils with umbric epipedon (B.S. less than 50 percent) and poorly or very poorly drained.
Last revised by the state on 4/65.