FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Distichlis spicata | Saltgrass 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Saltgrass rhizomes occur deep in the soil where they are insulated from
the heat of most fires.  Temperatures ranging from 118 to 156 degrees
Fahrenheit (48-69 deg C) never penetrated deeper than 1.5 inches (3.8
cm) into the soil during a prescribed fire on September 2, 1981 at a
drained marsh at Ogden Bay, Utah [70].  Following the fire, there was no
decrease in living saltgrass roots or rhizomes.

Viable seeds of saltgrass may be stored in meadow soils.  Soil samples
taken before and after the aforementioned fire contained comparable
numbers of viable saltgrass seeds [71].  Fire did not kill the saltgrass
seeds stored in the soil, and many germinated after the fire.


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
   Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

Related categories for Species: Distichlis spicata | Saltgrass