FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Agrostis gigantea | Redtop 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills redtop.  Rhizomes probably survive most fires, but they
can be severely damaged by the shallow burning of peat [19].  Seeds
buried in soil probably survive most fires.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Fire generally favors redtop.  Rhizomes sprout after fire and buried
seed may germinate.

Redtop was present in the postfire vegetation of the Sundance Burn
in northern Idaho.  On several sites it was present and flowered in
postfire years 1 and 2, but on other sites it did not appear until more
than 10 years after the fire [50].

Redtop was not present on the Curtis Prairie, Wisconsin, in 1951, but
after 10 years of biennial dormant season burning, it had 8 percent
frequency [1].

The Hayden Prairie in northeastern Iowa was subject to early spring
fires.  Redtop seedstalks, inventoried in August, did not differ
substantially between burned and unburned sites.  Redtop seedstalk
density on sites burned 2 and 3 consecutive years was not significantly
diffferent from that on sites burned a single time [11].  Early spring
fires in southeastern Iowa pastureland dominated by exotic cool-season
grasses had no significant (P<0.05) effect on redtop cover [48].

In south-central New York, little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
fields and goldenrod-poverty oatgrass (Danthonia spicata) fields burned
by spring wildfires were compared to adjacent unburned sites.  Redtop
increased with burning; on little bluestem fields, redtop frequency
averaged 17 percent on the unburned plots and 38 percent on the burned
plots.  On goldenrod fields, redtop frequency was 25 percent on unburned
plots and 39 percent on burned plots [53].  However, redtop decreased
with 17 years of early April annual and biennial burning of little
bluestem fields in Connecticut [44].  The repeated burning may have
stressed redtop, or the species present may have actually been a
nonrhizomatous form of creeping bentgrass, which may be more susceptible
to fire than redtop.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Redtop has been seeded onto burns with other grasses to prevent erosion
[12,43,49].  In northeastern Washington, redtop excelled on
northeast-facing slopes where moisture was high.  Redtop was not as
vigorous on southwest-facing exposures but was still present 4 years
after the seeding [12].

Prescribed burning rejuvenates redtop fields and is recommended to
enhance prairie chicken cover in the Midwest.  Fields should be burned 3
to 4 years after seeding (either in August or in March prior to nesting
season) to remove duff, improve redtop vigor, and control weeds.  A
second fire may be desirable 3 years after the first fire if the area is
not too densely invaded by forbs [60].

Early spring fire followed by the application of the herbicide atrazine
significantly (P<0.05) reduced redtop in most treatments [48].

Related categories for Species: Agrostis gigantea | Redtop