Self heal
Prunella vulgaris
Family: Lamiaceae
Fire effect on plant
Self heal is likely killed by fire.
Key traits
Self heal is a perennial, clonal herb. It propagates both vegetatively, by creeping stems that self root, and by seed. It has a shallow belowground budbank (average depth of 2cm; Klimešová et al. 2017).
When tested, the seeds of this species survived heating but showed no evidence of heat- or smoke-stimulated germination (Kazanci 2014). There is no specialed dispersal mechanisms meaning dispersal distances are low (0.1-1m; Lososová et al. 2023).
Plant response to fire
Although not described in the literature, we expect that fire will kill self heal given its shallow bud bank (except perhaps in very low severity burns). Recovery via the seed bank is likely, as is recovery from the clonal spread from unburnt individuals into burned patches.
Timing of life history
Perennial species. Seeds likely produced from second growing season. Flowering June to September.
Conservation status
None.
References
Kazanci, D.D. 2014. Determination of post-fire germination properties of Mediterranean plants. M.Sc. Thesis, Hacettepe University, Turkey. [Empirical evidence; Academic literature]
Klimešová, J., Danihelka, J., Chrtek, J., de Bello, F. and Herben, T. 2017. CLO-PLA: a database of clonal and budbank traits of the Central European flora. Ecology 98: 1179. [Empirical evidence; Academic literature]
Lososová, Z., Axmanová, I., Chytrý, M., Midolo, G., Abdulhak, S., Karger, D.N., Renaud, J., Van Es, J., Vittoz, P. and Thuiller, W. 2023. Seed dispersal distance classes and dispersal modes for the European flora. Global Ecology and Biogeography 32: 1485–1494 [Empirical evidence; Academic literature]