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Flammability of Southern Plant Species

Authored By: A. Behm, D. Kennard

The following discussion relates to species-specific factors that control the flammability of live plants. For a discussion of factors that control overall fuel availability of both live and dead plants, see Fuel Availability and Consumption.

Flammability describes how easily a plant will ignite and sustain a flame, how fast it will burn, and how much of it will be consumed in the process. Flammability is a qualitative rather than quantitative measure, i.e., it has no units of measure and therefore is useful in a relative sense for comparing species. Species-specific chemical and structural characteristics vary at the particle, branch, and plant level to affect overall flammability. The characteristics of plants that have the greatest influence on flammability appear to be the quantity of foliage and fine fuels on a plant and the moisture content of these fuels (Etlinger 2000). However, plants with high concentration of organic volatiles can be highly flammable even with high moisture content (Rothermel 1976, Shafizadeh et al. 1977). Flammability of a plant is also influenced by external characteristics such as weather, climate, and location.

There are several plant species in the south that are highly flammable, most notably the southern rough species. Of these, gallberry (Ilex glabra) is the most flammable, due in part to elevated organic volatile content (Shafizadeh et al. 1977, Burgan and Susott 1991). Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) and wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera) are also highly flammable southern rough species (Shafizadeh et al. 1977, Hough and Albini 1978). Of the southern pines, the long needle pines (longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and South Florida slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. elliottii) needles are the most flammable (Fonda 2001). Additional information on the flammability of southern plant species is presented in Comparing Flammability of Southern Plants, BROKEN-LINK Table: Flammability characteristics of southern species I, and BROKEN-LINK Table: Flammability characteristics of southern species II.

In addition to providing needed information to Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) residents engaging in firewise landscaping, quantification of flammability characteristics can contribute to the development of more ecosystem-specific and WUI-specific fire behavior models (Hough and Albini 1978, Rehm et al. 2002). Considerably more empirical data is needed on the flammability of plants, and in particular, those of southern species.


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Encyclopedia ID: p511



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