Herbaceous plants

Most of the plants native to our state have survived or thrived on the burning regimes of the past. They developed with fire as a part of their life cycle and either survived in a fire dominated landscape or they died. The attributes that provide native plants with the competitive advantage in a fire regime are many, but the most important characteristics are:

• Sun loving. Fire tolerant plants inhabit hotter, drier sites. They do not tolerate shade well. Many herbaceous plants do not initiate growth until the ground is well warmed.
• Lower growth points. Fire tolerant herbaceous vegetation has sensitive growth points at or below ground level where they are not as prone to damage from fire. Fires which remove the dead vegetation from previous seasons’ growth allow sunlight to penetrate to the growth point and initiate plant growth earlier in the spring.
• Extensive root systems. Both herbaceous plants and trees in fire environments develop extensive root systems which provide added drought tolerance. The root systems allow the plant to reach deeper moisture since the surface moisture is reduced by drying of the sun. The extensive root system also provides more soil holding capacity when the soil surface is exposed following a fire.