Grasses and fire: the importance of hiding buds

What is it about?

C4 grasses are thought to better growth in fire-prone grasslands due to their higher ability to fix carbon under warm and sunny environments than C3 species. Here we propose that C4 grasses often have rhizomes that protect the buds from fire, and thus having a rhizome may be as important or even more than the photosynthesis pathway for the success of C4 grasses in fire prone ecosystems.

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