The dry, acidic soils of coastal New Jersey, eastern Long Island, and Cape Cod support an association similar to that found on the dry ridges of the southern Appalachians. Upland Hardwood Forest Hardwood forests are the mature, or late-successional, forests on many sites in the Coastal Plain. There is considerable variation in species composition and community structure, depending on the availability of moisture and nutrients. In moist, rich soils, the spring wildflower display in these forests is similar to that in the eastern deciduous forests. In the northern Coastal Plain, oak forests composed of southern red oak, white oak, and a few others, are common.
Young forests are often mixed with various pines.
In the southern Coastal Plain, bullbay magnolia replaces the beech. In peninsular Florida, deciduous and evergreen oaks prevail. Xeric Pine Forest Forests of pine occur over extensive areas of coarse, dry, sandy soils in the fall-line sandhills extending from southern North Carolina through Georgia and parts of Alabama. Longleaf pine and wiregrass are found throughout, mixed with a variety of other pines, oaks, and other deciduous species, depending on the area. Fire plays an important role in keeping the grasses and forbs from being overtaken by shrubs and deciduous trees.