• FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS
• POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:

Mountain snowberry is a sprouter that is usually undamaged by low-severity fire but is top-killed by most fires of medium or high severity [19,58,62,66]. Sprouts are initiated from root crowns. Perennating buds on the root crown are located 1 inch (2.5 cm) below the mineral soil surface [65].

Mountain snowberry occurs in plant communities with a variety of fire regimes. The range of fire intervals reported for some species that dominate communities where mountain snowberry occurs are listed below. To learn more about the fire regimes in these communities, refer to the FEIS summary for that species, under "FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTIONS."

Community dominant                 Range of fire 
                                   intervals (yrs)                                                                                                               

interior ponderosa pine              20-42
(Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum)
Rocky Mt. Douglas-fir                10-30
(Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca )
subalpine fir                        >100
(Abies lasiocarpa) 
Engelmann spruce                     >150
(Picea engelmannii)
quaking aspen                        5-10
(Populus tremuloides)
mountain big sagebrush               10-50
(Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana)  
Gambel oak                           ----
(Quercus gambelii) 

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY:

Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

Related categories for SPECIES: Symphoricarpos oreophilus | Mountain Snowberry