[pbs] Question about fire and bulbs
Max Withers
maxwithers at gmail.com
Thu Oct 12 18:24:46 EDT 2006
There are some memorable photos of geophytes blooming after a fire in
Table Mountain: A Natural History by Anton Pauw and Steven Johnson, but
unfortunately not memorable enough that I remember the species. Perhaps
Haemanthus sanguineus? What I do recall is that some were said to bloom
only after a fire.
Some relevant articles from Veld and Flora:
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1990/firelil1.htm
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1998/heirsapp.htm
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1992/bettysbay1.htm
The last documents fire-induced flowering in Orchids.
While we are speaking of South Africa, allow me to digress briefly to
ask if anyone grows Mimetes in the US.
Max Withers
Oakland
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:57:12 -0700
> From: Mary Gutierrez <norwesgard at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [pbs] Question about fire and bulbs
> To: pbs at lists.ibiblio.org
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> I have been reading a lot about South African bulbs, and references
> say that some species bloom better after fire.
>
> I know that a number of other SA plants: restios, proteas, etc.,
> require fire for seed to germinate, but is it a similar requirement
> for some of the bulbs?
>
> Or are bulbs more abundant after fire simply because competing brush
> is cleared?
>
> I'm curious about this, because I want to know if the lack of fire in
> a garden environment (hopefully!) means that some of these bulbs
> won't grow successfully for the gardener.
>
> If anyone has insight on this, I'd appreciate it.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mary Gutierrez
> Seattle
>
>
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