• FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS
• POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:

Chokecherry is well adapted to disturbance by fire [5,25,52,97,105,174,177]. Although susceptible to to top-kill by fire, it resprouts rapidly and prolifically from surviving root crowns and rhizomes [51,97,105,162,166]. Several studies reporting chokecherry recovery by sprouting are discussed in the Fire Effects section of this report. Seed germination improves with heat treatment, suggesting scarification by fire is an important adaptation [127]. Postfire regeneration probably also involves the germination of off-site seed dispersed by mammals and birds [162].

No data were found for natural intervals of fire in stands that consist mainly of chokecherry. Gartner [52] provides a description of pre and post-settlement accounts of fire in the grasslands and ponderosa forests of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The historical information is detailed, but fire return intervals are not given. Hansen [63] provides limited historical and fire interval information for Minnesota forests in Isle Royale National Park, Itasca State Park, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Twenty-six lighting fires were recorded on Isle Royale from 1965 to 1949. In Itasca State Park the incidence of fires caused by lighting or set by Indians before 1859 averaged about one fire every 12 years. In the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, major fires recurred at 5- to 50-year intervals from 1600 to 1920.

Fire regimes for other plant communities in which chokecherry occurs are summarized below. For further information regarding fire regimes and fire ecology of communities where chokecherry is found, see the Fire Ecology and Adaptations section of the FEIS species summary for the plant community or ecosystem dominants.

Community or Ecosystem	Scientific Name of Dominant Species	Mean Fire Return Interval
Pacific ponderosa pine*	Pinus ponderosa var. ponderosa	1-47 yrs
Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine*	P. ponderosa var. scopulorum	2-10 yrs [30]
Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine*	P. contorta var. latifolia	50-300+ yrs [6,125]
Colorado pinyon	P. edulis	10-49 yrs
Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir*	Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca	40-140 yrs [30]
Wyoming big sagebrush	Artemesia tridentata var. wyomingensis	10-70 yrs [161,176]
mountain big sagebrush	A. tridentata var. vaseyana	5-15 yrs
curlleaf mountain-mahogany*	Cercocarpus ledifolius	13-1,350 yrs [9,132]
quaking aspen (west of the Great Plains)	Populus tremuloides	7-100 yrs [61,106]

*fire return intervals vary widely; trends in variation are noted in the FEIS species summary

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY:

Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/soboliferous species root sucker
Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

Related categories for SPECIES: Prunus virginiana | Chokecherry