Fire, a good control technique for Lantana?, by Frederique Lacraz

In the many attempts made by men to get rid of the unwanted weed Lantana camara, one technique was often chosen: the fire control. The idea of this method is first to uproot the plant, then to put the roots up in the air (to avoid them to go towards the ground and grow back again) and finally to let it dry for several days. When the plant is dry enough, it is burnt.

Fire is one of the major factors for such species, which is not only depleting undergrowth but also facilitating the germination of the weed. The fire has an impact on its frequency, abundance, density and basal cover. After fire incidences the basal cover of Lantana camara has increased tremendously in second year. However, fire is also very important factor for the degradation of the forests, which not only convert vegetation into ash but also facilitates in the spread of Lantana, to come up more vigorously. The spread of such weed has taken away much of the fodder resources as such obnoxious weeds cannot be grazed. Fire plays a vital role in invasion of exotics in existing natural vegetation in due course of time.

In the process of repeated burning, the species composition is gently changed. Other factor for survival of exotics due to their morphological characteristics like presence of modified leaf into spine protect them from frost and drought and also does not allow water to escape and more or less fertile soil is sufficient for their survival and this is adverse in case of very succulent species. This is a vicious circle with repeated pressure on the ecosystems paving way to the species, which welcome the activity of fire and grazing.

Not only this, the forest fires also effects on climate changes vigorously. In the past decade researcher have realized the important contribution of biomass burning and it is recognized now as a significant global source of emission contributing as much as 40% of gross Carbon dioxide and 30% of troposphere ozone (Anderson 1969).

For all those reasons, fire control regarding Lantana camara should be avoided.