There’s Fire in Them Thar Hills or Why Do We Burn When We’re So Close to the Beach?

Carolanne Sudderth

Mirror Staff Writer

   As devastating as fire can be to us, it is a regular and necessary element in the stands of chaparral and coastal sage scrub which line our beaches and shade our canyons. 
   Fire sterilizes the soil, burning out those nasty disease-causing funguses like verticillium wilt ( so devastating to tomatoes in Santa Monica) and clears the ground for the next generation of seedlings. 
   Species that have adapted to life in this soil and climate have also adapted to fire. 
   Older, well-established woody plants will send up new green shoots from their blackened trunks as if it were just another spring. Others toss seed that will not sprout until its aril (seed coat) has been scorched, letting the tiny plant embryo inside know that the field is clear of contaminants and competition. (Remember the Matilija poppy).
   Still others are adapted to cause fire. One of these is chamise. (Adenostoma fasciculatum) . Like a number of other southwestern plants, it’s also called greasewood, as its branches are chock-packed with resins and oils that, given the right conditions, can burst into flame as readily as if the wood were grease-soaked.
   Like many Southern California plants, chamise goes brown and crisp and tinder- dry in the summer. When the Santa Ana winds blow, those tinder-dry branches rub against each other, and, like two sticks in the hands of a talented boy scout, conflagration results. 
   The shrub is a frequent contributor to, if not igniter of brush fires. 
   Although not unattractive, this is obviously not the plant to grow next to your home. 
   Its overall look is similar to that of the common herb, rosemary, although its color is somewhat drabber. Its quarter-inch long leaves are tightly rolled into fingers bundled into tiny “hands.” (fascicles). Its small pale-yellow blooms are tightly clustered on the upper four to six-inch terminal spikes and resemble the leaves in everything but color, making the shrub look as though its leafy tips had been peroxided. 
   Not surprisingly, chamise is a chaparral indicator, an indication in itself perhaps of how large a part fire plays here. The plant is common in the upper reaches of local canyons and throughout the coastal ranges, where it can cover the slopes for miles, painting them white when it blooms in April and May.