Flatwoods In The Floyd County, Northwest Georgia, Southeastern United States |
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Flatwoods of the Berry College Campus,
David Long (1921), in Soil survey of Floyd County, Georgia, described the "flatwoods" as a local term in Floyd County for the higher alluvial terraces in the Coosa and the Oostanaula Rivers valleys. These areas had poor drainage due to their level topography, the fine surface soil, and plastic subsoil. Because of these characteristics, the rainwater remained in the flatwoods for an extended period of time during the wet seasons of the winter months. GEOLOGY & SOIL : The Paleozoic bedrock in the Oostanaula River Valley is Floyd Shale composed chiefly of shale, sandstone, and limestone. The valley south of the Coosa River has underlying Knox Dolostone rocks, limestone, and dolomites. The higher alluvial terraces were probably made by glaciers and heavy stream flow in Pleistocene times.
Long (1921) recorded that the type of soil in the Flatwoods was the Colbert silt loam, but in some places it was mixed with the Montevallo silty clay loam. The Colbert silt loam originated during the weathering of interbedded shales and limestones. Its surface horizon is silt loam, 10 cm deep, and it has a gray color and is very acidic. After a few years of cultivation, the color of the surface soil becomes whitish gray and with depth it changes to a light yellowish gray according to Long (1921). The subsoil starts with brown to yellowish brown silty clay loam with mottles of grey, yellow and red. It's followed by a yellowish brown clay horizon. The thickness of the subsoil is from 76 cm- 127 m, it is very acidic, and its stickiness and plasticity increase with depth.
The substratum is light olive brown clay, 50 cm deep, massive, sticky, plastic, with manganese concretions and small limestone fragments, and its reaction is neutral. The bedrock is limestone.
The Colbert silt loam soil was found in: Alabama at Colbert County, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee. LOCATION : The Oostanaula and Coosa rivers valleys are in the Great Valley that spreads through northwest Georgia from Tennessee and into Alabama. Its boundaries on the west are the Armuchee Ridges and on the east the Cartersville Fault.
Long (1921) found the largest area of the Colbert silt loam in the Oostanaula River Valley between Lavender Mountain, the Oostanaula River and the Coosa River. This area was 3-5 km wide and began at the Robinson near the Coosa River and extended to the northeast to the confluence of the Armuchee Creek and the Oostanaula River. The second large area was southwest in the Coosa River Valley. In the southwest, it was spread between Big Cedar Creek and the Alabama State line, the southeast boundary was the foothills of the ridge , and from Fosters Mills it extended to the north. The other areas of the Colbert silt loam in the northern part of Floyd County were between Floyd Springs and Everett Springs and Rosedale. Long also found the Colbert silt loam, in its stony phase, at the foot of the northwest side of Horseleg Mountain.
PLANTS : Long found that only 15-20 percent of Colbert silt loam was farmed and only on the small hills.
The low crop yield, the stagnated water in the wet season,
and plant diseases such as cotton rust were the reasons.
In 1917 Long recorded in the flatwoods an abundance of native grasses,
and the growth of trees such as:
Pinus echinata P. Mill., Shortleaf Pine,
Quercus laevis Walt., Turkey Oak, Quercus marilandica Muench.,
Blackjack Oak, Quercus nigra L., Water Oak, Quercus phellos L.,
Willow Oak, Quercus stellata Wangenh., Post Oak,
red oak, black gum, and haw.
References:
Mt. Berry, Floyd County, Georgia
(July 08, 2009.)
Presently, the two botanical sites, the flatwoods of the Oostanaula River Valley at Berry College Campus, and the Coosa Valley Prairies along the Jefferson Road at The Campbell Group, LLC property, are the reminiscences of those areas.
The Montevallo silty clay loam according to Long (1921) was developed on the higher grounds in Floyd County. Its surface horizon is undulating and does not prevent the run-off of water. Its top soil is 10 cm thick, a smooth silt loam in the color of a yellowish gray. The subsoil is a silty clay with a depth of 47 cm. Its color is red with mottles of yellow and gray, and with wetness it gains plastic characteristics. It is very heavy and prevents the internal movement of moisture. The next horizon, substratum is a silty clay in mixture of yellow, red and gray color, with some shale fragments.
1. Long, David. Soil Survey of Floyd County, GA. United States
Department of Agriculture,1921. Washington: Goverment Printing Office, 1921.
2. Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
United States Department of Agriculture. Official Soil Series
Descriptions [Online WWW].
Available URL: "http://soils.usda.gov/soils/technical/classification/osd/index.html" [Accessed 10 February 2004].
3. Image by Zvezdana Ukropina-Crawford
Last updated on February 21, 2010.
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