FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Ceanothus americanus | New Jersey Tea 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
New Jersey tea is well adapted to fire [1,31]. After being top-killed by
fire, it sprouts from rootsocks [5].  Where frequent fires occur it
becomes a conspicuous dominant forming clusters among prairie grasses.
It also occurs in oak woods of New York where fires have occured
frequently [31].  In black oak woodlands of nortwestern Indiana, New
Jersey tea was present in 2 areas with slightly different fire regimes.
New Jersey tea cover and frequency were greater where low-severity fires
occurred at mean intervals of 5.2 years than where more severe fires
occured less often (mean fire return interval=11.1 years) [16].  In
northern Minnesota it withstood grass fires better than any other shrub
[28].



POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
   Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

Related categories for Species: Ceanothus americanus | New Jersey Tea