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History of the INR of Inagua

Nature File - Fire

One very important feature of the Canary Island Pine is its resistance to fire. There are several characteristics which lend themselves to this ability: great bark density (usually between 3 and 5cm, up to 18cm or more in monumental specimens), fire-resistant seeds, protected buds… But from all of these, the most efficient evolutionary trait is the trunk’s ability to resprout. Very few pine trees in the world possess this characteristic.

The biology of the Canary Island Pine is indissolubly bound to fire, this being one of the elements present in its ecological cycle, which results in the pyrophytic feature of the species and its adaptation to these episodes throughout its evolutionary history.

Since its establishment on the islands, the Canary Island Pine has been subjected to the periodic incidence of fire from natural causes (lightning, volcanic eruptions, etc.) and also, in recent times, anthropic interventions have increased the frequency of forest fires, and although the Canary Island Pine has the ability to withstand them and to resprout afterwards, in the same way as some of the characteristic accompanying species ( especially leguminous ones, in which the ability to germinate is favoured by fire), there is no doubt that the ecosystem is negatively affected in that it loses biodiversity and a large amount of soil because of the erosive processes which are active after the decrease in plant cover.

Pinos canarios incendidados
Author: Víctor Navarro

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