FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Pinus virginiana | Virginia Pine 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Mature Virginia pine trees can withstand low- to moderate-severity
surface fires.  Severe fires will kill Virginia pine [9].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Virginia pine is an aggressive invader of burned sites [37].  After a
hot surface fire in a 30-year-old pine-hardwood stand, 45 percent of all
trees died within 2 years.  There were large numbers of pine (Virginia
and loblolly pine) seedlings by 2.25 years after the fire.  Density was
10,750 per acre, compared with 250 per acre on unburned plots [10].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Approximately one-half of the standing crop of Virginia pine needles is
shed annually.  Leaf litter produced by a 17-year-old stand was
calculated to be similar to the amount produced by longleaf pine (Pinus
palustris) [29,31,32].

Strip-clearcutting followed by broadcast burning of slash prior to
seedfall favors Virginia pine regeneration [29].

Crown fires in pine or pine-hardwood forests in which Virginia pine
occurs remove enough of the canopy for good Virginia pine regeneration.
Hot or cool surface fires do not remove sufficient canopy for good
Virginia pine regeneration [4].

Virginia pine is less resistant to fire than loblolly pine, shortleaf
pine, or pitch pine.  Fire will therefore reduce the importance of
Virginia pine in mixed stands [7].  Sapling stands are more vulnerable
to grass fires than similar-aged stands of shortleaf or loblolly pine
[18].

Thickness of Virginia pine bark was estimated at 2.7 percent of d.b.h.
[8].  Bark thickness required for 50 percent survival of Virginia pine
subjected to low-intensity fire was calculated by three models.  Using
that estimate, the length of time needed for tree growth to be
sufficient to resist fire damage was calculated as 13 years for
open-grown stands and 23 to 28 years for closed-canopy stands [24].
Virginia pine had the slowest decay rate for standing dead trees of 10
commonly associated species [23].

Related categories for Species: Pinus virginiana | Virginia Pine