Under a conifer stand the needle litter, duff and loam are now the cool gray-brown of a real Sierra floor instead of orange-brown, a little darker under closed crowns. The litter reaches past each crown by about a third of the tree’s height, so the floor turns to duff before you are under the trees, with pockets of bare soil and moss where it is damp.
Granite slabs between the trees keep their tops bare, with litter only in their cracks and low sides.
