FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Eragrostis lehmanniana | Lehmann Lovegrass 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Plant adaptations to fire:  Lehmann lovegrass is a seed-banking species.
Following fire, soil-stored seeds germinate when moisture conditions
become favorable.  Within a few months after fire seedling establishment
is typically abundant, resulting in replacement stands even after hot
fires that kill mature plants.  Fire promotes germination because (1)
heat from the fire scarifies the hard seed coat and (2) removing the
grass canopy results in greater soil temperature fluctuations and
greater irradiance of red light, which increase germination [25,27].

Although Lehmann lovegrass often suffers high rates of mortality from
fire, surving individuals may reproduce vegetatively by nodal
propagation.  Eighty percent of mature plants died following a November
burn on the Santa Rita Experimental Range in Arizona, but many of the
surviving plants rooted from the nodes of decumbent tillers, resulting
in 0.3 new plants per square foot (3.2/sq meter) [26].

Fire behavior:  Temperatures during an October burn, in a nearly pure
stand of Lehmann lovegrass on the Santa Rita Experimental Range, were as
follows:  (1) greater than 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 deg C) at the
soil surface, (2) about 356 degrees Fahrenheit (180 deg C) in Lehmann
lovegrass crowns, and (3) only slightly above normal 0.8 inch (2 cm)
below the soil surface [27].


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Ground residual colonizer (onsite, initial community)

Related categories for Species: Eragrostis lehmanniana | Lehmann Lovegrass