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Some commercially- and culturally-important plants characteristic
of disturbance-driven ecological communities in B.C. and their
uses are shown in the following table.
Click on the English name to see a photo of the plant species
and click on Map to see the species’ distribution map.
The photo and map will open in a new browser window. Click the
Close button at
the bottom of the image before clicking on another species or
map.
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English Name
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Scientific Name
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Uses
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Saskatoon
Map
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Amelanchier alnifolia
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Berries highly valued culturally and commercially.
Excellent wildlife species. Important species in ecosystem
restoration projects.
Garden ornamental.
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Soopolallie
Map
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Shepherdia canadensis
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Berries highly valued by some Aboriginal groups.
Important wildlife food species.
Nitrogen fixing plant valuable for ecosystem restoration
programs.
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Tall Oregon-grape
Dull Oregon-grape
Map
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Mahonia aquifolium
M. nervosa
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Berries highly valued for jelly.
Garden ornamental and ecosystem restoration species.
Inner bark and roots provided Aboriginal Peoples with
yellow dye.
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Pin cherry
Choke cherry
Map
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Prunus. pensylvanica
P. virginiana
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Berries highly valued for jams.
Cherry bark is an important decorative element in Aboriginal
Peoples’ basketry.
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Red raspberry
Black (blackcap) raspberry
Map
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Rubus idaeus
R. leucodermis
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Berries highly valued.
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Note: Some plant species have a limited occurrence
outside of the disturbance regime in which they generally occur.
This is because any mapping exercise is, by nature, a generalization.
Thus the conditions of a particular disturbance regime may exist
in small pockets in adjacent regimes (e.g. small areas of dry
disturbance-maintained communities may exist on dry southerly
aspects within the general area of moister disturbance-driven
communities).
These species are more or less light-demanding and regenerate
best on mineral soils with neutral to slightly alkaline pH.
Many species in disturbance-driven communities show adaptation
to fire in a number of ways:
- fruiting structures that are retained on the tree for long
periods and require heat to open (lodgepole pine);
- seeds with thick, impervious seed coats that must be broken
down by heat before water can be absorbed to allow the seed
to germinate (Ceanothus);
- species with edible fruits whose seeds can be quickly dispersed
into disturbances by birds and mammals (cherries, saskatoon,
soopolallie); and
- shrubs that can sprout back after fire from dormant buds
around the root collar (saskatoon, willow, soopolallie).
Management strategies for disturbance-driven ecosystems and
species will focus on
regulation of sustainable yield, co-management of forest landscapes
to maintain a more balanced spatial mosaic of age classes, maximizing
“edge effect”, and manipulating canopy density in
second-growth stands to enhance more light-requiring NTFPs (i.e.
some floral greens and berries). More intensive management could
also consider the selective application of small-scale, low-intensity
prescribed burns, on drier aspects to rejuvenate plant communities
and enhance both NTFP and wildlife values.
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