FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Linnaea borealis | Twinflower 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Twinflower is killed even by low-intensity fire [9,17,23,50,65].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Twinflower sometimes colonizes new areas after fire.  In northwestern
Montana, broadcast burning was conducted to remove slash following
logging of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa).  Twinflower had previously
been absent from the site.  Twinflower seedlings first appeared at
postfire year 6, showing 1 percent ground cover.  At postfire year 9,
twinflower cover was still at 1 percent [65].  Broadcast burning was
also conducted at a nearby site where prefire twinflower cover was 8
percent.  The fire removed 11 percent of the duff, and all existing
twinflower was killed.  As with the previously mentioned fire,
twinflower seedlings first established at postfire year 6, showing 1
percent cover.  By postfire year 8, twinflower cover at this site had
increased to 8 percent [65].

In Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis)-subalpine fir forests of central
British Columbia, twinflower frequency on 4- to 22-year-old burns was 60
percent.  Frequency on 37- to 75-year-old burns was 70 percent [26].

Two consecutive annual, low-intensity prescribed fires were conducted on
the Petawawa Experimental Station in Ontario.  Prefire relative
twinflower density was 9.65 percent.  After the first fire, twinflower
relative density lowered to 0.14 percent.  It dropped to 0.11 percent
after the second fire [52].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Brown and Marsden [11] have developed an equation for estimating fuel
weight of twinflower and other small woody plants, grasses, and forbs in
coniferous forests of western Montana and northern Idaho.  Brown [10]
developed a method of determing bulk densities of nonuniform surface
fuels in subalpine fir/twinflower and other forest types of that region.

Related categories for Species: Linnaea borealis | Twinflower