Seasonal pools in our studies include Great Basin playas, upland playas, and vernal pools. All occur in Mediterranean climates that receive an average of 250-350 mm of precipitation annually. All are ponded during the winter and spring months for periods of a few weeks to a few months, which gives rise to soils that have aquic moisture regimes within broader regions characterized by Aridic or Xeric moisture regimes. Our Great Basin soil, for example is a Sodic Hydraquent, and the Upland Playa soil is an Aquic Palexeralf. None of these soils, however, exhibits redoximorphic features of sufficient distinctness or in sufficient quantity to confirm their hydric status using existing field indicators. Dominant features of the Great Basin playa include high pH (10.8), high values of electrical conductivity that decrease with depth, high clay contents (64%) in the upper 14 cm, and unsaturated soil between the ponded water above and the groundwater below. Because hydrology and Pt electrode data confirm the hydric status of these soils, we propose using a combination of clay distribution, EC, and pH data as the basis for a new hydric soil indicator. Dominant features of the upland playa soil include an abrupt textural change at 4 cm, few redox features in the surface horizons, and complete absence of prolonged saturation at depth. Here, too, hydrology and electrode data confirm hydric status, and we propose using the mere presence of redox features in the horizon above the abrupt textural change as a new hydric soil indicator. Southern California vernal pool soils have dark colored surface horizons that lack redox features, but both prolonged ponding and hydrophytic vegetation suggest the presence of hydric soils. Additional data are needed to formulate new field indicators for these soils.