Prescribed Fire in the Management of Melaleuca quinquenervia in Subtropical Florida
Myers RL, Belles HA, Snyder JR. 2001. Prescribed Fire in the Management of Melaleuca quinquenervia in Subtropical Florida. Pages 132-140. In Proceedings of the invasive species workshop: the role of fire in the control and spread of invasive species Fire conference 2000: the first national congress on fire ecology, prevention, and management. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, Fl. 2000. Miscellaneous publication No. 11
Melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia) is one of the most invasive nonnative tree species in South Florida. Its adaptations to fire include a thick bark, epicormic sprouting, and serotinous seed capsules. Fire can facilitate the spread of melaleuca by triggering seed release, but fire exclusion is not a practical long-term option for managing infested South Florida natural areas. We sought to find life history stages or times of year during which melaleuca is susceptible to fire in order to incorporate prescribed burning into an integrated control program, one that includes herbicide treatments and, perhaps in the future, biological control. Specifically, we looked at the potential for prescribed fire to kill seedlings established after seed release triggered by chemical treatments. Field studies showed that most seedlings <50 em tall are killed by prescribed fire. The results of this research have been successfully incorporated into the largescale control program at Big Cypress National Preserve and elsewhere in the region. Rather than excluding fire, fire is used as a followup treatment to herbicide application to destroy released melaleuca seeds and seedlings.
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Myers, Ronald; Belles, Holly; Snyder, James
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Control, Germination, Melaleuca, Mortality, Prescribed Fire, seed rain, Seedlings, South Florida, Wetland