Heat Effects on Living Plants

Abstract

This review of knowledge concerning the effects of high temperatures on plants was undertaken in preparation for research aimed at determining how forest fires affect physiological processes in woody species. Major subjects discussed include morphological and physiological responses to high temperatures, external and internal factors governing these responses, recognition and assessment of fire damage, and ecological effects of fire, including benefits from prescribed burning. Consideration is given also to techniques for measuring high temperatures outside and inside the plant, and for reproducing these temperatures artificially in controlled experiments. Some of the fire effects reviewed here are not physiological, but a cursory survey of literature on them was included to round out the treatment, since they all constitute ways in which excessive heat influences plants.

Citation

Hare, Robert C. 1961. Heat Effects on Living Plants. USDA, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, Occasional paper 183