Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens

The Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens cover the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the pine and oak country of eastern Long Island, from Hammonton and Toms River across to Riverhead and Southampton. Sand is the defining feature here: it drains almost immediately, holds very little, and sits over an acidic water table that supports plants found nowhere else nearby. Natives like sweetbay magnolia, summersweet, and northern bayberry are adapted to that acidic sand, where ordinary topsoil-loving shrubs simply give out.

Conditions: Deep sandy acidic soils with very fast drainage, 42–48 inches of rain, humid summers and moderate winters, ocean influence.

Cities and areas: Riverhead, Toms River, Southampton, Hammonton, Atlantic City, Patchogue.