Boophane disticha

panosstavros88 · Post by **panosstavros88** » Mon May 12, 2008 3:31 pm

It is normaly for these sp. after the fire to have new growth and flowers.

Last year 6 days after the fire

10 days after...

30 days after...

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Mon May 12, 2008 3:43 pm

wow, that's wild! I've never cultivated a plant that required seasonal immolation.

Beautiful flowers.

peterb

Buck Hemenway · Post by **Buck Hemenway** » Mon May 12, 2008 4:45 pm

That's amazing. I heard people talk about the re-birth of the South Africa grasslands after fires, but that is fantastic.

Peyote Pete · Post by **Peyote Pete** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:05 pm

That is pretty cool. I guess from the ashes it is reborn better than before.

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:15 pm

I was reading about Australian "Grass" trees the other day. Imagine my surprise when one of the most common suggestions for cultivation problems were to light it on fire!

Sorta makes sense...

Tim

parrotsheaven · Post by **parrotsheaven** » Mon May 12, 2008 11:58 pm

TimN wrote:I was reading about Australian "Grass" trees the other day. Imagine my surprise when one of the most common suggestions for cultivation problems were to light it on fire!

Sorta makes sense...

Tim

The Aussie grass trees do need to be burnt to get good growth. So many of our native plants actually need a good fire to get the seeds to disperse and germinate. Much research has been done on this subject and that is how Smoke Water was made. You can make you own water to help with germination.

We have many bush fires in summer and when they get into parks you see so much regeneration after 12 months.

Heres a pic taken in Adelaide botanical gardens of the grass tree that have been burnt.

Betty

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:11 am

Wow that was great!

Thanks for shareing that!!!

tvaughan · Post by **tvaughan** » Tue May 13, 2008 1:44 am

Very valuable post, panosstavros! I've got one myself, and had no idea about that trick.

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Tue May 13, 2008 2:29 am

Totally amazing! I knew that fire is necessary for some species in the wild, but never heard of anyone doing it in cultivation.

I have to get some of those species, if only so I can call up friends and say, "Hey, want to come over and see me set my plants on fire?"

BTW those first two pics had me worried as to where this post was going, until I read the captions

-R