EFFECTS OF CONTROLLED BURNS ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH AND SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN VALERIANA CILIATA IN A MICHIGAN FEN

摘要

Valeriana ciliata T. & G. is a perennial plant restricted in Michigan to a small number of fens. A variety of management practices, including prescribed burns, is being used to control the establishment of alien woody species in fens. Response of V. ciliata to early spring burning was studied by examining plants in burned and unburned plots within a fen in southeastern Michigan. Neither growth, estimated as total number of leaves, number of rosettes and number of leaves per rosette, nor flowering, estimated as the proportion of plants flowering within quadrats, exhibited changes that could be attributed to burn treatments over the four year study. Early spring burning, therefore, can be employed as a management tool to control invasion of the fen by woody plant species without adversely affecting V. ciliata.