Re: Australian fires
- Subject: Re: Australian fires
- From: J* &* B* E*
- Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 10:35:31 +0800
Further to Tony, my two cents' worth, no doubt some of our experts can
contribute more ..
Richard Starkeson wrote:
>
> To the list members in Australia -
> We read about the great fires now occurring in the area near Sydney, and
> I wonder what effect the fire has upon native vegetation. Are eucalypt
> forests adapted to fire?
Yes, definitely. Thick bark protects some species (e.g. our West
Australian Marri, Corymbia callophylla) and resprouting is as Tony says,
typical. Seeds also germinate profusely.
Does fire in Australia produce a subsequent
> mass flowering of annuals, or spurts of new growth in shrubs and trees?
And how! The limit of a fire can clearly be seen later where the carpet
of, for example, Acacia bushes suddenly drops off. There are also
so-called "fire weeds" which are only seen for a few years after a fire,
then disappear. Orchids and other plants appear in abundance, flourish
in the increased sunlight and can be appreciated in the absence of
litter. I saw the Blue Mountains behind Sydney (now burning) a few years
after the last bad fires; the eucalypts were regrowing to half or
one-third of their original height as shown by the dead trunks, and the
Waratahs (Telopea) were striking, each a brilliant red pompom topping a
single trunk.
> Here in northern California, we had a large fire about 10 years ago that
> went through large eucalyptus groves (I am not sure of the species, but
> were predominantly a single species of gum). A great number of the
> large trees were destroyed, but resprouted from the base about a year
> later.
I understand that most of the Eucalypts in California are Tasmanian
bluegums (E. globulosa?) which have been planted world-wide because of
their rapid growth. Unfortunately, they are not very decorative.
In spite of all the above, too frequent burning will kill off plants
which have not had time to grow big enough to produce seed. The
Aborigines lit a lot of fires ("peripatetic pyromaniacs" someone said!)
but they burned in a mosaic pattern which did not cause the devastation
of intense wild-fires and prevented the formation of a thick layer of
fuel. We are learning, but burning-off causes an intense outcry from
city dwellers.
Beverly
--
Julius and Beverly Elischer
Perth, Western Australia
Ph. +61 8 9386 5244
