Fire management in southwestern riparian areas may include fuel reduction and prescribed fire treatments that promote or maintain native vegetation and reduce or eradicate invasives. In turn, this can alter fire behavior and fire regimes. When nonnative species invade the overstory and/or understory and alter riparian vegetation composition and structure, fuel characteristics may also change. Severe, intense, and/or frequent fire can interact with altered hydrology to accelerate the replacement of native plants with nonnative and often invasive plants such as tamarisk and Russian-olive. However, the degree to which fire regimes are changing in southwestern riparian ecosystems-or what the effects might be for riparian ecosystem structure, function, and resilience-are not well known. Most fires were likely patchy and of low severity due to patchy and sparse fuels.Ĭhanges in hydrology and vegetation have undoubtedly affected fuels and fire regimes of southwestern riparian communities and surrounding uplands. Fires were probably infrequent, and they likely varied in severity and extent across southwestern riparian ecosystems. Historically, fuels in plant communities where desert-willow is common were likely mostly sparse and discontinuous, although information on this is limited. It sprouts after top-kill by fire and may also establish from seed. Low- to moderate-severity fire prunes or top-kills desert-willow.
With alterations in hydrology and climate change, fire is becoming the primary disturbance in many riparian ecosystems. Flooding is the primary disturbance in communities with desert-willow, but desert-willow also grows in early postfire environments. Desert-willow is most common in open areas.
Germination occurs on moist substrates, soon after flooding, and growth is typically rapid in moist soils. Seed crops are typically large in wet years. Desert-willow is cross-pollinated by bumble bees. It sprouts from the root crown following top-kill. Desert-willow reproduces sexually and regenerates from seed. It is an obligate riparian species, and it is most common in wash shrublands and mixed-deciduous riparian woodlands.
SUMMARY This review summarizes the information on the biology, ecology, and effects of fire on desert-willow in that was available in the scientific literature as of 2021.ĭesert-willow is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, occurring in the Mojave, Sonoran, Colorado, southern Great Basin, and Chihuahuan deserts. Photo © 2000 Larry Blakely, used with permission. Figure 1-Desert-willow in Anza Borrego State Park, California.
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