LOCATION VERMISA OREstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, mesic Lithic Dystroxerepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Vermisa very gravelly loam, woodland, on a 65 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soils unless otherwise noted.)
A--0 to 4 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) very gravelly loam, very pale brown (10YR 7/3) dry; weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and medium roots; many very fine irregular pores; 40 percent gravel and 15 percent cobbles; neutral (pH 6.8); clear wavy boundary. (3 to 7 inches thick)
Bw--4 to 17 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) extremely gravelly loam, very pale brown (10YR 7/3) dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine to medium roots; common very fine to medium tubular pores; 55 percent gravel and 20 percent cobbles; slightly acid (pH 6.4); clear wavy boundary. (8 to 14 inches thick)
R--17 inches; hard fractured graywacke.
TYPE LOCATION: Douglas County, Oregon; on the 15.0 road about 1/2 mile from its junction with 3.0 road; 1,980 feet west and 1,350 feet south of the northeast corner of section 15, T. 31 S., R. 8 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The mean annual soil temperature is 50 to 57 degrees F. The soils are usually moist but are dry throughout the moisture control section for 45 to 90 days following the summer solstice. The thickness of the solum and depth to hard fractured bedrock is 10 to 20 inches. Rock fragments of metasedimentary, metavolcanic rock range from 35 to 55 percent gravel and 0 to 25 percent cobbles. The hue is 10YR or 7.5YR.
The A horizon has value of 3 to 5 moist, 5 to 7 dry and chroma of 2 to 4 moist and dry. It is gravelly loam or very gravelly loam with 10 to 20 percent clay. It has 15 to 50 percent gravel and 0 to 15 percent cobbles.
The Bw horizon has value of 4 or 5 moist, 6 or 7 dry and chroma of 3 to 6 moist and dry. It is very gravelly loam, extremely gravelly loam, or very gravelly silt loam with 18 to 27 percent clay. It has 35 to 55 percent gravel and 0 to 25 percent cobbles.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Goulding and Larmine (T) series. Goulding soils have more than 50 percent coarse and very coarse sand and the clay is dominated by kaolinite (40 percent) and vermiculite (50 percent). Larmine soils have less than 18 percent clay in the Bw horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Vermisa soils are on mountain side slopes, canyon walls, and headwalls. Slopes range from 12 to 100 percent. Elevations are 400 to 4,000 feet. Vermisa soils formed in colluvium and residuum weathered from metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The climate is characterized by cool moist to wet winters and hot and dry summers. Mean January temperature is 40 degrees F., and the mean July temperature is 67 degrees F., the mean annual temperature is 45 to 57 degrees F. The frost-free period season is 100 to 235 days. The mean annual precipitation is 30 to 60 inches but may range to 100 inches in areas of high winter rainfall of Curry County, Oregon.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Atring, Beekman, Kanid, McGinnis, Pollard, Rosehaven and Tishar soils. Atring soils are 20 to 40 inches to paralithic contact and average less than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Beekman soils are 20 to 40 inches to a lithic contact. Kanid soil are deeper than 60 inches to bedrock. Pollard, Tishar, and McGinnis soils are clayey and have an argillic horizon. Rosehaven soils are deeper than 40 inches to bedrock and average less than 35 percent coarse fragments in the particle-size control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; moderately rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Timber production, wildlife habitat, and weathered. Native is Douglas fir, poison oak, canyon live oak, and grasses, tanoak, manzanita, and madrone.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern part of Oregon in the Coast Range, the Umpqua Valleys, and Siskiyou Mountains; MLRA 5. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Josephine County, Oregon, 1979.
REMARKS: Formerly classified as loamy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Lithic Xerochrepts, competing series not updated at the time of reclassification.
Diagnostic horizons and features include:
Ochric epipedon
Cambic horizon - the zone from 4 to 17 inches (Bw horizon)
Particle-size control section - the zone from 10 to 17 inches (part of the Bw horizon) with a weighted average of 65 percent rock fragments