FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Ribes aureum | Golden Currant 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills or kills golden currant.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Golden currant seedlings may establish after fire, and golden currant
probably sprouts from surviving rhizomes after low- to moderate-severity
fire.

In Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, low-severity prescription
fires conducted during the spring and fall of 1979 resulted in decreases
in Ribes spp., including fragrant golden currant, during postfire years
1 and 2.  Weather conditions were as follows [35]:

                wind speed      temperature     relative
                mi/h (km/h)     deg F (deg C)   humidity (%)

fall burn       10 (16)         58 (14.4)       45
spring burn      5 (8)          57 (13.9)       32

The origin of golden currant on postfire plots (seedling or sprout) was
not described. Prefire and postfire values for Ribes spp. on
experimental (burned) and control (unburned) plots were as follows [35]:

                              Prefire    Postfire yr 1    Postfire yr 2
Number of plants (density)
        experimental          299        112              73
        control                21         27              25

Mean max. height (cm)
        experimental           34.6       18.4            25.3
        control                37.2       34.6*           41.0

Mean max. crown width (cm)
        experimental           32.2        16.5           20.1
        control                33.9        37.4*          35.6*

* indicates that value for control plot was significantly (p<.05)
  greater than value for experimental plot.  

In Nevada County, California, the Donner Ridge Wildfire "completely
razed" a pine (Pinus spp.)-fir forest [6,7].  Golden currant was
observed growing on the site in postfire year 8.  It is not clear
whether golden currant had sprouted or established from seed.  Other
members of the postfire vegetation community included mules ears
(Wyethia mollis), mahala mat (Ceanothus prostratus), greenleaf
manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula), rabbitbrush goldenweed (Haplopappus
bloomeri), and young Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and lodgepole pine
(P. contorta) which had germinated after the fire [7].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Species: Ribes aureum | Golden Currant