Shallow outwash deposits are underlain in some places by bedrock or finetextured till and lacustrine deposits, causing poor or very poor drainage conditions. On icecontact topography, soils are typically excessively drained on the upland kames and eskers and poorly or very poorly drained in the kettles and outwash channels. Where the topography is steep, organic soils can be 10 to 15 feet deep in narrow outwash channels. The circumneutral glacial drift that forms the moraines is largely derived from the local limestone bedrock. In the icecontact areas, soils are sands and gravels.
Vegetation reflects underlying differences in landform and topography.
On the sandy moraines, open savannas of black oak, white oak, and hickory were common. Other dominants of the oak savannas were white oak, black oak, and chinquapin oak. Most of the wetlands on the end moraines were shrub or tree swamps located in lower slope position or in small depressions. Wetlands on the lower slopes were typically hardwood swamps. Kettle lakes and swampy depressions on the moraines typically supported shrub swamp, hardwood swamp, or tamarack swamp.