LOCATION RANGER TN+NC VA

Established Series
Rev. JAE/TRL
01/2022

RANGER SERIES

These soils have brownish channery silt loam A horizons and yellowish brown channery silt loam B and C horizons.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Ruptic-ultic Dystrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Ranger channery silt loam - forested. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

O2--0 to 1 inch; black (10YR 2/1) organic mat of hardwood and pine litter. (0 to 2 inches thick)

A1--1 to 2 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) channery silt loam; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many fine and coarse roots; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 3 inches thick)

A2--2 to 7 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) channery silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; common fine and coarse roots; 20 percent by volume thin fragments of phyllite up to 3 inches long; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (2 to 8 inches thick)

B2--7 to 19 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky and medium granular structure; friable; common fine and coarse roots; 40 percent by volume thin fragments of phyllite up to 6 inches long and 1/2 inch thick; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (7 to 24 inches thick)

B3--19 to 27 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; few roots; 60 percent by volume of fragments reddish phyllite up to 12 inches long and 2 inches thick; some of the fragments are thinly coated on the upper surfaces with clayey and silty material; strongly acid; clear irregular boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)

R--27 inches; hard phyllite rock.

TYPE LOCATION: Monroe County, Tennessee; 6 miles southeast of Tellico Plains on Old Furnace Road; 1 mile northeast of Holder Cemetery.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to phyllite, slate, or siltstone rock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Amount of coarse fragments of phyllite, slate, or siltstone in various stages of weathering averages between 10 and 35 percent by volume in the A horizon and between 35 and 65 percent in the B horizons. Size of the fragments ranges from about 1 inch to 12 inches long, and from less than 1 to about 3 inches thick. Some of the fragments are soft enough to crush between the fingers. The silt and sand fractions are more than 30 percent weatherable minerals consisting chiefly of sericite and chlorite. The soil is strongly acid or very strongly acid throughout.

The A1 horizon is dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) or very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2). The A2 horizon and Ap horizon in the few cultivated areas, is brown (10YR 4/3, 5/3) or yellowish brown (10YR 5/4). The fine-earth fraction is silt loam. Structure of the A horizon is moderate, weak medium granular, rarely weak medium, or fine subangular blocky.

The B2 horizon is yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, 5/6), strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), or brown (7.5YR 4/4, 5/4). The fine-earth fraction is silt loam or rarely silty clay loam. Structure is weak or moderate, medium or fine subangular blocky. The B2 horizon is dominantly a cambic horizon, but some part of each pedon has sufficient illuviated clay, as evidenced by clay films and clay increase, for an argillic horizon. The argillic part is yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, 5/6), strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), or rarely yellowish red (5YR 5/6) silty clay loam or silt loam.

The B3 horizon is yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, 5/6) or strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) channery silt loam.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Armuchee, Goldston, Litz, Louisa, Louisburg, and Steekee series. Armuchee, Louisa, Louisburg, and Steekee soils contain less than 35 percent coarse fragments and have average annual temperatures more than 59 degrees F. In addition, Steekee soils have reddish colors and sandy loam and loam textures. Goldston soils have siliceous mineralogy and average annual temperature more than 59 degrees F. Litz soils have thinner sola and a paralithic contact with shale. In addition, the argillic horizon portion of Litz soils has a higher clay content than that of Ranger soils.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Ranger soils are in dominantly very steep and mountainous country. Slope gradient ranges from 10 to 75 percent, but is dominantly 30 to 65 percent. Elevation ranges from about 1,200 to 3,500 feet above sea lever. These soils formed in rescuum from phyllites, slates, rhyolites, and siltstones. They are in areas having about 50 to 57 degrees F. average annual temperature, and about 54 inches average annual rainfall.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Citico soils which are in the coves and which are deeper than 40 inches to rock, and Fletcher soils which have continuous argillic horizons about 10 to 35 inches thick.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained or excessively drained; medium runoff; moderate permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: A few cleared areas are used mainly for growing pasture. About 95 percent is in forest. The main tree species are Virginia pine, shortleaf pine, sourwood, red maple, oaks, black gum, hickories, dogwood, few white pine and hemlock, and an understory chiefly of huckleberry.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Unaka Mountain Range in Tennessee and Virginia, and possibly Georgia and North Carolina. The series is of large extent--50,000 acres estimated in Monroe County, Tennessee.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Gordon County, Georgia; 1913.

REMARKS: The Ranger series would formerly have been classified in the Lithosols great soil group.

1/2022 revision: O2 had 1 to 0 inch depths, corrected to be 0 to 1 in horizon depths then added 1 inch to all horizon depths throughout the typical pedon. WJN

OSED scanned by SSQA. Last revised by state on 12/74.

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.