The major forest types of the Balsam Mountains in western North Carolina produce distinctive assemblages of arboreal pollen that can be used to characterize past vegetation based upon pollen profiles from small bogs, forest soils, and woodland-hollow pools. Comparison of pollen assemblages derived from moss polsters within forest sample plots indicates that although certain pollen types are abundantly produced and widespread both within and between forest zones, other pollen types are either distributed mainly within the forest type in which they are produced or occur only locally within a sampled stand. Many species and genera are indicators of specific forest types.