From year to year the composition may change, depending on how different species respond to flooding. Mature trees can reach very large sizes. Silver maple and cottonwood trees may measure a circumference of 17-20 feet. The canopy spread is proportionally large. A typical forest may have only about 85 trees per acre because of these large dominants.
Many trees have multiple stems as a result of damage to trunks by ice and flood-carried debris.
Low densities of seedlings and saplings are typical in a wet forest. Flooding conditions often yields poor seed germination. Distinct bands of vegetation of different types often develop. Sandy loams, silty clays, hard clays. Very poor to poor drainage.