FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca 


FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Fire autecology:  Survival - Nonrhizomatous banana yucca survives fire
by sprouting from basal stem buds beneath the soil surface
[18,19,41,51].  Rhizomatous banana yucca sprout from rhizomes after
fire.  Banana yucca is easily top-killed by either fire or frost.  It
is the most northerly yucca in its taxonomic section (Sarcocarpa), and
sprouting may have evolved in banana yucca as an adaptation to freezing
temperature rather than to fire [18,19,51].  However, the ability to
sprout has allowed banana yucca to survive in and sometimes dominate
fire-prone ecosystems.

Postfire seedling establishment:  Seedling establishment after fire is
probably rare in banana yucca.  Presence of banana yucca seedlings after
fire has not been noted in scientific literature.  Keeley and Keeley
[28] concluded that fire has not been a selective agent in seed
germination traits of banana yucca.  In the laboratory, banana yucca
seeds showed greater mortality after exposure to high temperature (>212
degrees Fahrenheit (100 deg C)) than seeds of nine other yucca species:
mortality of banana yucca seed was nearly 100 percent.  Although
germination rates of banana yucca seeds were significantly greater
(p<0.01) at 194 degrees Fahrenheit (90 deg C) than at room temperature,
germination rates were high in both cases (97% at 194 deg and 84% at
room temperature).

Fire regimes:  There is an extremely wide range of fire regimes in the
ecosystems in which banana yucca occurs.  Mountain shrub and Arizona
chaparral typically experience frequent, stand-replacement fire
[12,18,19,29].  Madrean oak-pine and pinyon-juniper have mixed-severity
fire regimes [15,36,46].  Some desert shrub communites such as
blackbrush and creosotebush experience fire infrequently [24,55].  For
more discussion on these fire regimes, see FEIS reports on:  Quercus
gambelii (mountain shrub ecosystems), Ceanothus gregii (Arizona
chaparral), Pinus cembroides (Madrean oak-pine and pinyon-juniper),
Pinus edulis (pinyon-juniper), and Coleogne ramosissima and Larrea
tridentata (desert shrub).



POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
   Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil

Related categories for SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca