FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Aralia nudicaulis | Wild Sarsaparilla 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills wild sarsaparilla; vegetative and reproductive buds are
destroyed.  Surviving rhizomes sprout and vigorously grow following fall
or spring fires.  New rhizomes are produced.  Flowers are not initiated
during the first growing season following fire [19].  Very few wild
sarsaparilla come in as seed immediately following fire [1].  Following
a light- to moderate-severity lightning fire in April, wild sarsaparilla
plants sprouted from surviving rhizomes; no seeds germinated [6].  After
a July prescribed fire, surviving wild sarsaparilla sprouted within 2
weeks and was common on all sites.  It did decrease in cover, however,
and in community importance [114].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Wild sarsaparilla has been classified as a decreaser.  It initially
decreases in frequency and biomass following fire [72,113].  The amount
of decrease does not depend on the type of fire (headfire or backfire)
but does depend on fire intensity and time of burning [113].  Wild
sarsaparilla generally decreases in frequency by about 50 percent 1 year
following fire.  Within 4 years, wild sarsaparilla can recover, with an
increase in frequency ranging from 50 to 90 percent of preburn levels
[1,97].  Two years after fire in northern Ontario, there was a
three-fold increase in frequency of wild sarsaparilla [119].  In the red
pine (Pinus resinosa) and eastern white pine forests of the Lake States,
wild sarsaparilla does well following fire and is prevalent on fresh
burns [123].  After various silvicultural methods combined with
prescribed burning, the density of wild sarsaparilla usually decreased
compared to logging without burning or to control treatments
[1,52,94,114].

Wild sarsaparilla had less biomass (1.31 stems/sq m) compared to the
control (3.77 stems/sq m) when a winter clearcut in northern Minnesota
was followed by summer burning [100].  One year after a wildfire in
northern Idaho, wild sarsaparilla sprouted in one out of 21 sites.  It
entered communities only at postfire years 9 and 10 in low densities of
0.2-2 sq m/0.01 ha [117].  Following two successive annual, low-severity
fires in Ontario, wild sarsaparilla decreased in density from preburn
levels.  Surviving plants decreased following the second fire from 172
stems per hectare to 21 stems per hectare.  One year after the fires,
wild sarsaparilla began to increase [90].

In northern Michigan, wild sarsaparilla had peak frequency at postfire
year 31 [108].  Thirty-three years after fire in northeastern Minnesota,
it occurred on all plots with an average frequency of 57 percent [96].
Following a light-severity surface fire in Ontario, wild sarsaparilla
only occurred on two sites aged 25 and 50 years and had importance
values of 3.6 and 2.0, respectively [115].  The average cover of wild
sarsaparilla was measured over 80 years on burned-over jack pine-black
spruce (Pinus banksiana-Picea mariana) in northeastern Minnesota.  Wild
sarsaparilla remained at 1 to 2 percent cover until postfire year 15; it
increased to 8 to 12 percent cover from postfire years 15 to 80 [2].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Summer moisture content of wild sarsaparilla averaged 253 percent in
northeastern Minnesota.  These data were used to assess flammability and
test the herbaceous fuel moisture algorithm of the National Fire Danger
Rating System [83].  Wild sarsaparilla does not contribute much volume
to fine fuels since it decomposes relatively rapidly; leaf organic
matter had decreased by 37.4 percent after 4 months [89].  Ground
vegetation that included wild sarsaparilla was used to develop
regression equations for predicting changes in forest floor moisture
[20].

Related categories for Species: Aralia nudicaulis | Wild Sarsaparilla