Sol Lessivé

Soil usually forming in a broadleaf forest and characterized by moderate leaching, which produces an accumulation of clay and some iron that have been transported (eluviated) from another area by water. The humus formed produces a textural horizon that is less than 50 cm (20 inches) from the surface. Podzolic soils may have laterite in place of the humic horizon or along with it. Sols lessivés are often difficult to identify, but they are the dominant soil type of much of lowland Britain, where forest was cleared to make way for agriculture.

The type of soil which may develop under open vegetation, or under arable fields, normally in areas of relatively low annual rainfall, where the soil may dry out during the summer. Sols lessivés seem usually to have originated from brown forest soils which have been stripped of their protective tree canopy and have had nutrients removed by grazing and cultivation of crops. Under these conditions, clay may be washed down the profile to be re-deposited as an illuvial horizon further down. Sols lessivés are often difficult to identify, but they are the dominant soil type of much of lowland Britain, where forest was cleared to make way for agriculture.