FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Diospyros texana | Texas Persimmon 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire top-kills mature Texas persimmon.  A greater fuel load results in
more top-kill, especially in individuals less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) basal
diameter [46].  Fire may completely kill Texas persimmon, especially
smaller individuals [8].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Texas persimmon sprouts from the root crown when top-killed by fire
[8,16].  One year after fire in a chaparral-mixed grass community in the
Welder Wildlife Refuge, surviving Texas persimmon had sprouted and was
growing vigorously [16].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Managers use fire in combination with mechanical methods to control and
remove brush from grasslands.  On a loam prairie site in Goliad County,
Texas persimmon decreased as much as 68 percent with mechanical
treatment combinations followed by 2 consecutive years of August fires.
Treatment combinations included roller chopping followed by 2
consecutive years of shredding, and roller chopping, shredding, and
herbicide spraying while shredding [15].

On the Welder Wildlife Refuge in southern Texas, mechanical brush
removal treatments followed by fall fire 2 years later was applied to a
chaparral-bristlegrass community.  Fires were more effective at brush
control if the area had been pretreated with mechanical brush removal.
Plots with mechanical removal (chopped, scalped with a bulldozer, or
shredded with a rotary mower) burned uniformly because of available
fuel.  In plots with no mechanical pretreatment, fire carried in the
grass and into small brush clumps, but large brush mottes remained
unburned.  On burned plots, 10 percent of Texas persimmon, mostly small
plants, were completely killed; the remainder were top-killed but
sprouted from the root crown.  At postfire year 1, Texas persimmon
average percent frequency for unburned (but mechanically treated) plots
was 19 percent and for pretreated burned plots was 10 percent [8].

Related categories for Species: Diospyros texana | Texas Persimmon