FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Vaccinium myrsinites | Ground Blueberry 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Fire is an integral part of many southeastern plant communities in which
ground blueberry occurs as an understory dominant or codominant [2] [see
Successional Status].  Evidence suggests that the flatwoods and swales
of central Florida burned every few years during presettlement times.
These frequent fires not only maintained the vigor of sprouters such as
ground blueberry but also resulted in a compositionally stable plant
community.  During recent years, fire suppression and declining stand
flammability attributed to urban encroachment, has contributed to the
decline of these communities.  In some areas, concomitant increases in
various evergreen hardwood or southern mixed hardwood forests have been
observed [1].  Natural fire intervals are estimated at approximately 10
to 20 years in coastal Georgia pine-oak scrub.  These intervals, which
correspond to coastal drought cycles, are too short to allow hardwood
dominance [15].

Ground blueberry is well able to persist despite periodic fires.
Evidence suggests that short fire intervals characteristic of most
ground blueberry communities have produced natural selection for a
"xerophytic genotype which is strongly adapted to fire" [42].
Abrahamson [2] reports that ground blueberry "exhibits a 'sit and wait'
strategy, in that [plants] apparently survive with little aboveground
biomass for long periods of time before fire causes release from shading
and/or nutrient" depletion.  Ground blueberry typically sprouts from
underground rhizomes after the foliage is consumed by fire.  Birds and
mammals may transport some seed to burned sites.


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil
   Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

Related categories for Species: Vaccinium myrsinites | Ground Blueberry