It is well known that the chaparral of Southern California has the capacity for rapid regeneration following destruction by fire (e.g., Cooper, 1922; Sampson, 1944; Horton and Kraebel, 1955). This is accomplished by the production of seedlings from sand stored in the soil and sprouts from below-ground vegetative parts. Sometimes these two modes of reproduction are combined in a single species, but often a species reproduces after fire almost exclusively by one of these means. The latter is considered to be the pattern in the genera of Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus.
