LOCATION PENDERGRASS COEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive Lithic Haplocryepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pendergrass fine sandy loam, grassland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A1--0 to 5 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) fine sandy loam, dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) moist; weak fine granular structure; soft, very friable; 10 percent sandstone fragments; calcareous; mildly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
C1--5 to 9 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 5/4) channery fine sandy loam, reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) moist; weak fine granular and weak medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, very friablek; 30 percent sandstone fragments; calcareous; mildly alkaline; gradual smooth boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
C2--9 to 15 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 5/4) very channery fine sandy loam, reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable; 50 perent sandstone fragments and flagstones; clacareous; mildly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 7 inches thick)
R--15 to 20 inches; hard sandstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Larimer County, Colorado; about 75 miles northwest of Fort Collins; 1,000 feet west of the northeast corner of Sec. 27, T. 12 N., R. 75 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock ranges from 10 to 20 inches. The control section is usually channery fine sandy loam and has 5 to 18 percent clay in the fine earth fraction. Rock fragments average 35 to 70 percent with most of the fragment being less than 6 inches in length. Average annual soil temperature ranges from 43 to 46 degrees F., and the average summer soil temperature ranges from 55 to 58 degrees F.
The A and C horizon range from neutral to moderately alkaline.
The A horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 through 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist, and chroma of 3 or 4. Usually the A horizon has granular structure but it has subangular blocky structure in some pedons.
The C horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR.
COMPETING SERIES: This is the Merino series. Merino soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Pendergrass soils are on mountainsides and ridges. Slope gradient ranges from 5 to 50 percent. Elevation ranges from about 7,500 to 9,000 feet. The soils formed in moderately coarse textured material weathered from redbed sandstone. At the type location the annual precipitation is about 15 inches, most of which falls during the spring and summe. The frost-free season is about 60 to 85 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Clergern, Miracle, and Sunshine soils, all of which have mollic epipedons and B2t horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well to excessively drained; medium runoff; rapid permeability above bedrock.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for rangeland. Native vegetation is mainly sagebrush, wheatgrasses, junegrass, and mountainmahogany.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mountainous areas of north-central Colorado and adjacent areas in Wyoming. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Larimer County Area Colorado, 1975.
REMARKS: Last updated by the state 5/75.