FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Gaultheria procumbens | Wintergreen 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills wintergreen [15].  Surviving rhizomes may sprout
[16,30,33,54].
 


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
The response of wintergreen to fire and its role in fire related
succession seems to be highly variable. 

In southwestern Nova Scotia, wintergreen survived a July fire.  The
following summer density (stems/9 sq ft) and frequency (%) on covered
and uncovered quadrats were as follows [26]:

               covered           exposed
   Density       0.3                0
   Frequency    20                  0

In southeast Manitoba, five plots were burned in April.  No prefire data
were given.  Results from the end of August showed the average frequency
of wintergreen was 54 percent and the average cover was 3.8 percent.
Different levels of shade (0-100 %) had little or no effect [46].

Percent frequency of wintergreen was monitored for 2 years after a fall
(September) prescribed fire on a jack pine clearcut in northern
Michigan.  Little change occured, at least in the first year.  Results
are given [1]:

          Unburned blocks         Burned blocks

            % frequency           % frequency
   1980          5.6                   5.4
   1981          4.6                   0.8

Some research indicates that intergreen is sensitive to fire.  A spring
controlled fire was conducted on bracken fern (Pteridium
aquilinum)-grassland in Wisconsin.  Sampling was done in July and August
of the year of the fire.  The average frequency of wintergreen decreased
by 25.8 percent [38].  In the Pine Barrens of northern Wisconsin,
wintergreen average frequency decreased from 28 to 14 percent 1 year
after a spring fire [39].  In the New Jersey Pine Barrens, wintergreen
became less important with increasing fire frequencies.  Fire
frequencies ranged from annual to 15-year intervals [44].  Wintergreen
in this area exploit fire-generated gaps in litter through clonal
propagation [50].

Other studies indicate that fire may favor wintergreen.  In northwest
Minnesota, a severe May fire burned only the uppermost centimeters of
the forest floor.  Wintergreen cover in unburned stands was 0 to 5
percent.  After fire it was present in several associations and
increased through the sixth year following fire to a maximum cover of
6.2 percent.  Biomass increased after fire, more in dry than moist
stands, but leveled off after the second year, perhaps because of the
low-bush growth form of wintergreen [51].
 
In a survey of the burned-over forest lands in southwestern Nova Scotia,
frequencies of wintergreen related to years since fire were as follows
[48]:

   postfire yr      % frequency
       1                10.5
       2                16.6
       9                 4.0
      22                40
      29                48.2
      40                40 


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Species: Gaultheria procumbens | Wintergreen