Dear Gary: You might be correct regarding the 'smoke' question. I heard about it when at Kirstenbosch one time, perhaps 7-9 years ago. It was explained to me that several South Africans wished to find out the temperatures during a fire, then found that certain areas were not burnt at all. This lead to a series of tests and it was found it was the smoke that did the trick. The speed at which the plants respond is quite amazing. A field of Pillansia templemanii came into flower just a day or two after a fire had swept through the area. I was fortunate to see this near Hermanus just along the coast north of the Cape. Cheers, John E. Bryan Gary wrote: > > Dear John et al, > > Many plants have evolved to require special conditions to bloom, set seed, and especially to sprout the seeds. Smoke exposure techniques were developed, I believe, in Australia a number of years ago due to the fact that many outback plant seeds were reluctant to sprout under normal circumstances. I found that Billardiera seeds if not fresh will grow with this method. It is a standard practice to treat seeds of Proteas this way. > > A good site that explains fire and smoke requirements for some north American plants is at http://nativeplants.for.uidaho.edu/Content/… > > Gary in Hilo, HI > > Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php