LOCATION VERTREES KY+VA WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Vertrees silt loam--second growth woods on 6 to 12 percent slopes. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many roots; approximately 10 percent fragments of chert; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--7 to 24 inches; yellowish red (5YR 5/8) clay; strong, fine and very fine angular blocky structure; firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common fine roots; common continuous distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6) clay films on ped faces; approximately 2 percent fragments of chert; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (5 to 25 inches thick)
Bt2--24 to 51 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) clay; many medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) mottles; strong, fine and medium angular blocky structure; firm, moderately sticky, moderately plastic; few fine roots; many continuous distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6) clay films on ped faces; 2 percent fragments of chert; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (20 to 40 inches thick)
Bt3--51 to 78 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) clay; many medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) mottles; strong, fine and medium angular blocky structure; firm moderately sticky, moderately plastic; few fine roots; many continuous distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6) clay films on ped faces; 2 percent fragments of chert and 10 percent shale channers; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Larue County, Kentucky; on north side of Cissal Ridge Road, 2.23 miles east of Roanoake, 4.5 miles northwest of Athertonville, about 7 miles northeast of Hodgenville.Nelsonville USGS Quad,(Latitude: 37 degrees, 40 miunutes, 9.5 seconds North; Longitude: 85 degrees, 39 minutes, 58.6 seconds West)
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The solum thickness and depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Reaction ranges from moderately acid to very strongly acid to a depth of about 50 inches, and from very strongly acid to neutral below 50 inches. Rock fragments of chert or channers of siltstone range from 0 to 35 percent by volume in the A and BE horizons, 0 to 25 percent by volume in individual Bt horizons to a depth of about 50 inches. The weighted average of coarse fragments is less than 15 percent. Below 50 inches, chert and channers of siltstone range from 0 to 35 percent by volume.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR to 5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. The A horizon ranges from 1 to 6 inches thick and has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is silt loam and rarely loam. Severely eroded areas have texture of silty clay loam. (A horizons range from 1 to 9 inches thick)
The BA or BE horizon when present has hue of 10YR to 5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 6. Texture is silt loam, silty clay loam, loam, and their gravelly modifiers. (BA and BE horizons range from 0 to 7 inches thick)
The Bt horizon, in the upper part, has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 6 to 8; and in some pedons is mottled in shades of brown and red. The Bt horizon in the middle and lower parts has hue of 7.5YR to 10R, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 6 to 8 and has few to common mottles in shades of brown, red, or yellow and in some pedons below a depth of 30 inches has shades of gray. Texture is clay or silty clay. Some pedons have thin layers of silty clay loam in the upper part of the Bt horizon.
Some pedons can have BC horizons below a depth of about 50 inches, parts of which have some platy or relic shale structure. Many pedons have small black or very dark brown manganese oxide concretions, or black manganese stains as ped coating, commonly in the lower part of the solum.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Baxter, Maury, Shenval, and Springwood series in the same family. Baxter soils have a weighted average of 15 to 35 percent chert in the control section. Maury soils lack the mottles in the middle and lower Bt horizon. Shenval soils formed in older alluvium and do not have chert fragments in the solum. Springwood formed in calcareous conglomerate in the Triassic Basin of the Piedmont.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Vertrees soils have slopes ranging from 2 to 30 percent and are on uplands. Most areas are karst. The soils formed in residuum from limestone interbedded with siltstone and shale. Near the type location the mean annual temperature is 56.6 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is 51.2 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These soils are the competing Baxter series and the Caneyville, Garmon, and Nicholson series. Caneyville and Garmon soils have bedrock at less than 40 inches. Nicholson soils have a fragipan and are moderately well drained.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained, medium to rapid runoff. Permeability is moderately slow to slow.
USE AND VEGETATION: Due to the karst topography, most areas are used for pasture and hay. Steeper areas are forested. Native forests consisted of oaks, hickory, elm, maple, dogwood, red cedar, persimmon, and sassafras as the dominant species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal region of Kentucky and southern Indiana. The extent is moderate.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hardin and Larue Counties, Kentucky, 1975.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 7 inches (Ap horizon)
Argillic horizon - 7 to 78 inches (Bt1, Bt2, Bt3)