By Steven Gilio

 Found on the coastal plains of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida.  Most common in North Carolina (70%).

 Occupy poorly drained higher ground between streams and floodplains. Pocosin is an Algonquin Indian word that means “swamp on a hill”.  Range in size from less than an acre to several thousand acres.

 Pocosins will often be found on top of perched water tables

 Deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils  Dense evergreen plant communities, which thrive on acidic, nutrient-poor soils.  No standing water present.  Shallow water table leaves the soil saturated for much of the year.

 Pocosins are pyrophitic ecosystems.  Natural fires occur because pocosins periodically become very dry in the spring or summer.  Fires are ecologically important because they Increase the diversity of shrub types in pocosins.

Tall Pocosins  Taller trees  Shallow peat  More soil nutrients Short Pocosins  Shorter trees  Deeper peat  Less soil nutrients

 Essential to the healthy functioning of estuaries along the Southeastern U.S. coastline.  Good at absorbing and retaining rainfall, which is then released slowly into nearby streams and saltwater marshes.  Valuable for storm water retention and groundwater recharge.  Provides specialized habitat

Pond PineLoblolly PineLongleaf Pine

Titi Tree Fetterbush Zenobia

Sphagnum MossVenus Fly Trap

Black Bear Red Wolf Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

 Agriculture More than 3,000 square miles were drained between 1962 and About 1,400 square miles of undisturbed pocosins Remain today  Timber harvest  Peat mining  Phosphate mining

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