FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Chamaedaphne calyculata | Leatherleaf 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills leatherleaf.  Leatherleaf probably survives severe fires
because rhizomes are deep in water-saturated substrates and its stems
are matted in debris [28,33].  Surviving root crowns and rhizomes
sprout.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Leatherleaf was only slightly injured by summer or autumn fires in New
Brunswick.  Following spring burning, leatherleaf showed a strong
increase in stem density; apparently, it had not yet depleted its
reserves and was able to support new growth.  Preburn and postburn
percent relative abundance (stem density) after spring, summer, and
autumn fires was as follows [26,29]:

Season of                                Postburn
burn           Preburn       1 month         3 months       5 months
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Spring           28           42               13             --
Summer           30           29               29             17
Autumn           36           32               --             --

Ten years after a lightning fire in Alaska, leatherleaf was present in
low amounts on disturbed firelines and in one burned site [80].  It was
present at 0.7 percent frequency in burned and at 2 percent frequency in
unburned areas 20 to 24 years following fire in the Northwest
Territories [45].  In northern Quebec, leatherleaf occurred 30 years
after fire at 21 to 31 percent frequency in lowland boreal black spruce
forest and at 1 to 20 percent in forest-tundra sites [72].  Leatherleaf
had about 40 percent frequency 94 years following a high-severity fire
in central New York [50].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Leatherleaf is a flammable shrub; crowning or foliage scorch is common
with leatherleaf in the understory in the pine swamps or lowlands of New
Jersey [52].  Fuel loading that was predominantly leatherleaf and bog
labrador tea in cutover areas of black spruce was estimated at 15 to 25
tons per acre (33-56 t/ha) in the Blackduck Burns, Minnesota [40].

Related categories for Species: Chamaedaphne calyculata | Leatherleaf