The contribution of resprouts and seedling recruitment to post-fire regener
ation of the South African fynbos conifer Widdringtonia nodiflora was compa
red eight months after wildfires in 1990. Stems on all trees were killed by
fire but resprouting success was > 90 % at all but one site. A demographic
study of burned skeletons revealed that prior to these fires, nearly all p
lants were multi-stemmed (4 - 9 stems/plant) and multi-aged, indicating con
tinuous sprout production between fires. All stems were killed by these 199
0 fires and at most sites > 90 % of the stems were burned to ground level.
All diameter stems were susceptible to such incineration as, at most sites,
there was no difference in average diameter of stems burned to ground leve
l and those left standing. Individual genets usually had all ramets inciner
ated to ground level or all ramets charred, but intact, suggesting certain
micro-sites burned hotter, whereas other sites were somewhat protected. Alt
hough not true of the 1990 fires, there was evidence that occasionally Widd
ringtonia stems may survive fire. At one site, four of the 16 plants sample
d had a burned stem twice as old as the oldest burned stem on the other 12
plants at the site, suggesting some stems had survived the previous fire (c
a. 1970) and this conclusion was supported by fire-scars on these four stem
s that dated to ca. 1970. Based on the highly significant correlation betwe
en stem diameter and cone density left standing after the 1990 fires, we ca
lculated that for most sites > 80 % of the initial cone crop was incinerate
d by fire. This is important because we observed a strong relationship betw
een size of the canopy cone crop surviving fire and post-fire seedling recr
uitment. Under these conditions we hypothesize that sprouting confers a sel
ective advantage to genets when fires cause heavy losses of seed. The infre
quent occurrence of sprouting in the Cupressaceae suggests the hypothesis t
hat resprouting is an apomorphic or derived trait in Widdringtonia. Data fr
om this study suggests resprouting provides a selective advantage under sev
ere fynbos fires, which are not only 'stand-replacing fires,' but also are
intense enough to incinerate cone-bearing stems.