Playing with Wildfire: 5 Amazing Adaptations of Pyrophytic Plants

David Crawshaw

A blazing inferno is moving quickly in your direction. You feel the intense heat and the air is clogged with smoke. Deer, snakes, and birds flee past you, even the insects attempt to escape. You would run too if you could, but unfortunately, you are a plant. The fire begins to lick at your leaves and you wait... While no one likes the sight of a burned forest, fire is important for the functioning of a number of ecosystems and many plants are specially adapted to these fire-prone habitats. Read on to discover some of the amazing ways plants survive—and even thrive—in the face of wildfire.

5Fire-activated Seed

Eric Draper/AP

Perhaps the most amazing fire adaptation is that some species actually require fire for their seeds to sprout. Some plants, such as the lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia, have serotinous cones or fruits that are completely sealed with resin. These cones/fruits can only open to release their seeds after the heat of a fire has physically melted the resin. Other species, including a number of shrubs and annual plants, require the chemical signals from smoke and charred plant matter to break seed dormancy. Some of these plants will only sprout in the presence of such chemicals and can remain buried in the soil seed bank for decades until a wildfire awakens them. The image shows lodgepole pine seedlings growing next to the charred remains of their parent plants following the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires.

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4Thermal Insulation

Graphic House/EB Inc.

Some plants are able to survive wildfires due to a clever layer of thermal insulation provided by their bark, dead leaves, or moist tissues. Certain trees, including larches and giant sequoias, have incredibly thick, fire retardant bark and can be directly burned without sustaining damage to their vital tissues (though they will eventually succumb to intense fires). Other plants, such as the Australian grass tree and South African aloes (pictured) retain dense, dead leaves around their stems to serve as insulation against the heat of a wildfire. Additionally, some plants have moist tissues that provide both thermal insulation and protect against dehydration during a fire. This strategy is common in a number of Proteaspecies which have corky tissues to protect their buds from desiccation.

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3Resprouting

Ron Dorman—Bruce Coleman Inc.

Though wildfires inevitably kill and injure many organisms in their path, a number of plants have adapted to resprout if they are damaged in a blaze. Some of these resprouters, including several Eucalyptusspecies, have specialized buds that are protected under the bark of their trunks. When the trees are burned, these buds emerge to produce new leaves and branches. Other plants rely on underground structures for regrowth, which allows them to “come back” even if the above-ground portion has been destroyed. SomeBanksia species and other shrubs have swollen stem bases or underground woody organs known as lignotubers from which new shoots can emerge. Similarly, many herbaceous plants have fleshy bulbs, rhizomes, or other types of underground stems from which green shoots rapidly develop in the wake of a fire.

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2Prolific Flowering

© Hans Reinhard/OKAPIA/Photo Researchers

To take advantage of the ash-fertilized soil, some plant species are able to flower prolifically after a fire. The Australian grass tree (pictured) is a well-known example of this adaptation. Its conspicuous flower spikes are often the first sign that the plant survived a blaze and individuals grown in greenhouses are often subjected to blowtorching to encourage flowering! Other fire-stimulated species often bloom simultaneously a few weeks after being burned, creating lush landscapes of colorful flowers. This is especially common in annual plants that emerge rapidly from the post-fire soil seed bank. Several members of the fire lily genus (Cyrtanthus) only flower after fires and have an extremely fast flowering response to natural bush fires. One species can even reach full flowering stage in just nine days following a fire!

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1Tall Crowns

Andrew Brown-Ecoscene/Corbis

A tall crown and few to no lower branches is a strategy a number of tree species employ to reduce wildfire damage. In keeping their leaves and vital growth tissues far above the reach of most flames, these trees can often survive a fire with only minor charring to their trunks. This adaptation is common in several pine species as well as in many Eucalyptus species. Some of these trees, such as the ponderosa pine, have even evolved a “self-pruning” mechanism and readily remove their dead branches to eliminate potential sources of fuel.