This forest community is associated with, but not limited to, the Central Sands Ecological Landscape. Moisture conditions vary from dry to borderline dry-mesic. Soils are coarse-textured, acid sands, on landforms that can include glacial outwash, lakeplain, old dunes, and eroded sandstone-cored ridges. The canopy co-dominants vary, but older, relatively undisturbed stands may include white and red pines (Pinus strobus and P. resinosa), various oaks (Quercus alba, Q. rubra, and Q. velutina), and sometimes red maple (Acer rubrum), black cherry (Prunus serotina), and bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata). The depauperate understory of the drier sites is composed of a small number of vascular plants that usually include huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), early blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), and Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica). Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) is sometimes co-dominant on the driest sites.
