Table 15.— Postfire behavior of some Pattee Canyon herbs and mosses 



Species 



Fire survival 



Seed production 



Expansion potential 



Perennials: 

 Arnica cordi folia 

 Arnica lati folia 

 Aster consplcuus 

 Berberis repens 



Calamagrostis rubescens 



Epilobium angustifolium 



Galium triflorum 



Geum macrophyllum 



Linnaea borealis 



Mimulus guttatus 



Osmorhiza ctiilensis 

 Pyrola secunda 



Urtica dioica 



Annuals: 

 Corydalis aurea 

 Geranium bicknellii 

 Lactuca serriola 



Mosses: 

 Bryum caespiticium 

 Ceratodon purpureus 



Rhizomes 



Stolons 

 Rhizomes 



Rhizome-like roots and wind- 

 carried seed 

 Shallow, fine rhizomes; 

 survived in moist areas 

 Short root stocks 



Creeping stems; only in 

 sheltered microsltes 

 Short stolons along side 

 streams 



Short, shallow roots 

 Slender rhizomes in 

 sheltered microsltes 

 Strongly rhizomatous; moist 

 sites 



Possibly soil-stored seed 

 Off-site wind-blown seed 



Light off-site wind-blown 

 spores 



Seed set the first year 



Few flowers the first postfire 

 year more the second 

 Bloomed profusely the first 

 postfire summer; continued 

 blooming succeeding years 

 Began blooming profusely the 

 first postfire summer 

 Bloomed the first postfire 

 year 



Bloomed the first postfire 

 year 



Not observed 



Bloomed the first postfire 

 year 



Bloomed the first postfire year 

 Not observed 



Bloomed the first postfire 

 year 



Bloomed and set seed 

 first postfire year 

 Set seed first year 



Produced few spores late the first 

 postfire year; many the second 



Some vegetative spread from 

 rhizomes; wind-carried 

 seeds 



Bird carried fruit 



Good recovery from both 

 rhizones and seed 



Some vegetative spread from 

 rhizomes; wind-carried seed 

 Small, barbed seeds carried 

 by animals; limited expansion 

 Spread limited to moist 

 ravines 



Vegetative spread by 

 creeping stems 

 Expanding into newly shade- 

 free stream-side sites 

 Barbed seeds carried by animals 

 Possible seedling; source 

 unknown 



Vegetative spread; possibly 

 seedlings 



Almost disappeared the 

 second postfire year 

 Almost disappeared the 

 second postfire year 



By wind-carried spores; 

 vegetative expansion 



rhizomatous and have low cover values, especially on 

 upland sites, following the 1977 fire. 



Spring ephemerals with deep corms or rhizomes were 

 usually present in sampling plots as dead stalks or litter 

 by late sunmier. Lambstongue fawnlily (Erythronium 

 grandiflorum) is common across the burn. Casual obser- 

 vations indicate that it sprouted and bloomed in 1978; 

 however, in the spring of 1979 and 1980 lambstongue 

 fawnlily flowers were spectacular across the burn. 



Sweetscented bedstraw (Galium triflorum) is found 

 primarily in ravines. Shallow, fine rhizomes along with 

 small, barbed seeds allow it to persist and spread in 

 such areas. Mountain sweetroot (Osmorhiza chilensis) 

 persists from rootstocks, has barbed seeds, and does 

 best in moist ravines. Both had the highest cover values 

 in 1979, the second summer after the fire, and have 

 declined in cover since. 



Leirgeleaf avens (Geum macrophyllum), common 

 monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus), and stinging nettle 

 (Urtica dioica) apparently expanded their populations in 

 moist ravines since the fire; however, they are primsirily 

 found on the moistest sites and were not quantitatively 

 sampled in plots. Stinging nettle, particularly, appears 

 to thrive on disturbance, although its rate of spread 

 following the fire may have been slowed by competition 



from orchardgrass combined with an infestation of cater- 

 pillars in 1979 and 1980. 



A few species present the first summer after the fire 

 possibly were present as buried seed before the fire. Ex- 

 amples include Pennsylvania bittercress (Cardamine pen- 

 sylvanica), golden corydaUs (Corydalis aurea), 

 dragonhead (Dracocephalum paruiflorum), and Bicknell 

 geranium (Geranium bicknellii). Since the first postfire 

 ye£ir Pennsylvania bittercress has been observed on ex- 

 posed sites following spring flooding; golden corydalis 

 has disappeared completely; £md both American 

 dragonhead and BickneU geranium have occasionedly 

 been observed in trace eimounts. Prickly lettuce (Lactuca 

 serriola) was the only annual with wind-carried seed that 

 established in enough quantity to receive a cover value 

 in any plot in 1978. 



Rowe (1979) considers creeping subshrubs to be fire 

 avoiders. Sidebells shinleaf (Pyrola secunda) and kin- 

 nikinnick are in this classification; nevertheless, both 

 were present on the bum by the first summer, mainly as 

 occasioned resprouts in sheltered microsites. Pyrola 

 seedlings were also found in one of the drier ravine sites 

 during 1979. In contrast, princes pine (Chimaphila 

 umbellata) was present in this area, according to Schuler 

 (1968), and has not been observed on the bum since the 

 fire. 



21 



