Serotinous pine cones need fire heat before they open
Some pines seal seeds in resin-locked cones that stay shut for years. Only heat — often from a passing wildfire — melts the glue so scales peel back and seeds rain onto freshly opened ground.
The strategy times germination to ash beds rich in light and low in competing shade. Species from lodgepole to some banksias and cypresses share variations of this fire-cued release.
What looks like destruction is a calendar. Serotiny turns flame into the signal that a new forest generation may begin.
Comments
0 comments