Crown Recovery ofEucalyptus divesFollowing Wildfire

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Abstract
The restoration of crowns of 5–7 m tall trees of E. dives of coppice origin was studied after a wildfire on October 1, 1971, near Captains Flat, N.S.W. Unburned plants were compared with those which had their crowns completely scorched but not burned and those which had their leaves completely burned off by crown fire. All trees survived. Approximately 50 per cent of the height of crown-burned trees was killed and 30 per cent in the case of crown-scorched trees. While these results were significantly different most measurements of crown recovery were similar for these two classes of fire-affected plants. Leaf weight was restored within 8 months of the fire. The clumped pattern of epicormic shoots emergent along surviving trunks soon after the fire was replaced by that of the normal branching pattern less than three years later.