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06 - After the Fire
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The charred landscape of the pinelands is remarkably fast at bouncing back. Within days, saw palmettos (Serenoa repens) send out new fronds from the tips of their charred trunks. The flames release the nutrients that were bound up in the tissues of the ground cover, providing fertile soil for new growth. The pine canopy does not burn as fire rarely reaches that high, but even if it did, the needles form an envelope of air around the especially vulnerable parts, insulating them from the heat of the flames. Within months, the pinelands will look like they did before the fire except for the absence of the hardwoods and the presence of charred trunks of trees and palmettos.
Long Pine Key, Everglades National Park, Florida
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