Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)

Primary succession after a fire: the hummingbirds are loving those new flowers (Penstomen barbatus); they feed on those. Aspens are highly competitive after forest fires; they typically sprout when the soil temperature increases after a fire.

Category:

Science & Technology

[sstikkmann]

correction: seeds, not cones

[dipperdog]

You're thinking of some of the pine species, whose seeds require fire to germinate. Aspens require open areas to survive, so any kind of disturbance that removes the tree canopy- anything from a rockslide on a mountain slope to a forest fire to a logging clearcut will allow them to grow, but their seeds do not need fire (and in fact their seeds are very small and not well protected so fire will kill any seeds not protected by being buried well into the soil, but disperse into burned areas).

[Delockony0kkp]

That's the truth :3 The same is true of volcanic eruptions, volcanic ash makes for very fertile soil.