Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes
Fires can damage soil and reduce its capacity to hold moisture. This can affect plants' ability to survive. However, there are a number of groundcovers, herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees that are fire resistant and are listed below.
The risks that wildfires pose to homes and landscaping can be diminished, though never completely eliminated, by careful selection and placement of landscape plants. Any plant will burn if it is dry enough and the fire slow enough and hot enough. The ability of a plant to survive a fire depends upon the speed and type of fire, the time of year, the tendency of the plant to accumulate dead and dry material within the plant, the presence of terpenes, oils or waxes in or on the plant tissues, and the moisture-holding capacity of the plant species.
