Fire on the mountain

A few days ago I was clicking away at my computer in my room in this small city in South Carolina in the United States on the continent of North America on a large globe, 7,952 miles away from Cape Town, South Africa.

Where a wildfire was burning.

It's summer in South Africa,and that means high temperatures, dry conditions, and importantly, strong southeastern winds. Rugged mountains line the Cape Peninsula from Cape Town toward Cape Point, and much of the vegetation in this area is--- you guessed it--- flammable fynbos.

The fire began on March 1 on Muizenberg mountain and by March 3 had burned 4,000 ha. Yesterday, on March 5, rain helped bring the fire under control.

Here's a neat time-lapse video that was featured:

It is certainly sobering to consider the difficulties and often the damage and injury that are involved in such large fires that occur so close to urban areas. Those who work to bring the fire safely under control, and to keep others safe face serious hazards. Our sympathy and support go out to those involved in the fire.

But for the fynbos, this fire renews.

Interestingly, the region last burned 15 years ago, so this fire is "right on schedule", so to speak, with the natural fire regime. The plants were ready; many fynbos shrubs (for example, those in the Proteaceae family), store their seeds in cones ("serotinous" cones) that are opened by the heat of the fire. Some seeds are stimulated to germinate by smoke,and the plants can begin to regrow within a week or two. Fynbos is also home to an incredible diversity of "geophytes", plants that have underground storage organs from which they can resprout after their aboveground parts are burned. Lilies and orchids will quickly color the landscape soon after a fire.

Some folks who went back to burned areas noticed birds, insects (likely surviving underground), and small rodent and lizard tracks. Speedy reptiles and small mammals can run from the fire, and others may take shelter in burrows or rocks. It's not long at all before the landscape springs back to life.

However, in areas where there were pine plantations,and anywhere the pines had spread into fynbos, the fires burned much hotter than in the native shrublands. Fires that are too intense can kill seeds and raise soil temperatures, also damaging underground bulbs.

But where the botanical courtiers of this floral kingdom still hold their ground, you can be sure there's about to be one beautiful parade!

And as I click away on this computer, typing this Lab Note....7,952 miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean, in South Africa, in Cape Town, on a mountainside, in a patch of bare soil... little plants are beginning to grow.