pocosin
noun/pəˈkoʊsən/
Etymology From an unknown Algonquian word, sometimes suggested to be one meaning "opening out" (the widening of a river, related to Ojibwe baakisin (“it is left open”)), or "swamp on a hill". Alternatively, perhaps related to Abenaki pôgwaso (“very shallow”).
1
Biology, Ecology, Natural sciences US A low, wooded swamp in (especially coastal) Eastern Maryland, Virginia or the Carolinas; a palustrine wetland with deep, acidic peat soils.
- One has to go down "on all fours" to get below the dense tangle of vegetation. Each step in the soft peat is uncertain. The reward is a pocosin community full of wildflowers.2001, Richard Dwight Porcher, Douglas Alan Rayner, A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, University of South Carolina, page 95:
- Derived terms
- short pocosin, tall pocosin