Do Some Plants Want to Catch Fire?

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	Do Some Plants Want to Catch Fire?

jamreilly

7-8-2009 3:06 PM

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8-19-2009 5:59 AM

celestialdancer

Hey James,
I just finished watching an episode of "The Supernatural in Nature" which looked at bush in Middle East, which creates like a petrochemical which spontaneously explodes into flame if hit by a falling rock or some such. They pose that maybe it was one of these plants that Abraham speaks of as "the burning bush" in the bible.

Pretty amazing...

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/234b7d72-8fe1-403a-9f12-8f31b293ada5/E8C4AC99-A56F-4526-911F-F98AA2A9846B/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/" href="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/" style="font-size: 11px;">judson.blogs.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/"><P>It’s common knowledge that plants regularly exposed to fire tend to have features that help them cope with it — such as thick bark, or seeds that only grow after being exposed to intense heat or smoke.  But what is less often remarked on is that the plants themselves affect the nature and severity of fire.  </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/judson.blogs.nytimes.com/img/18CFA0E8-7150-4E47-BBFE-72BF7766872A" alt="Wildfire in the San Jacinto Mountains, California." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/">Many plants that live in places prone to fire are highly flammable — more flammable than plants that live elsewhere.  This has led some to speculate that these plants have actually evolved to cause fires: that they “want” fire, and have evolved features that make it more likely that a spark will become a flame, and a flame will become a fire.  I call this the torch-me hypothesis.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/">The argument goes like this.  Many plants depend on fire for their propagation.  Indeed, without fire, these plants disappear.  </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/on-fire/">This idea has sparked a heated debate</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/E8C4AC99-A56F-4526-911F-F98AA2A9846B/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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