SummaryIn the “terra firme” of the Amazon basin near Manaus, podzol soils occur carrying heath forest. The parent materials are geologically young sandy sediments deposited in valleys. There are no indications that man's activity is one of the pedogenetic factors of the podzol development. Podzols have gradational contact with flanking brown soils developed on loamy Tertiary sediments carrying tropical rain forest. In the ‘terra firme’, that means outside the actual flood plains of the River Amazon and its tributaries, there are sand areas in which soil investigations following the catena principle have been carried out by the author. In the Manaus area the most important pedogenetic factors of the podzol development are lithology and topography. The podzols seem to have developed from parent soils which are characterized by bleaching and eluviation of organic and inorganic substances. The very small Bhlayers of podzols which are not correlated with the some metres thick Aehorizons are due to lateral percolation of rain water. On the Tertiary ‘serie of the Barreiras’ brown loams are found carrying high tropical rain forest. On podzols and more differentiated brown soils heath forest is found. Generally, tropical podzols are associated with black‐water rivers. Because the field work was restricted to the Manauús area, the modus of podzol development described in this paper is valuable for that region only. Further studies are necessary to explain the sources of ‘black water’ of other parts o