SHRE Proposals funded for 2025-2026
Title:
Drought Resilience and Fire Tolerance of Popular California Native Plants: Comparing drought, fire, and stress resistance in common native selections
Primary Investigator:
Katarina Michel & Jared Sisneroz; Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Project Summary
As drought and high temperatures become increasingly common, consumers are increasingly interested in drought tolerant and low water use landscape plants. Selections of California native plants are increasingly popular in climate and drought-tolerant landscaping. A number of taxa have transcended specialty nurseries to become more widely available in the trade. This accessibility has resulted in several selections and cultivars being particularly common and popular throughout the state. This project aims to evaluate these popular cultivars and selections against their parent species to understand if they are better suited for use in low-water and fire-resilience landscaping. Drought resilience will be assessed by measuring stomatal conductance between selections under controlled conditions. To identify both drought tolerant and “fire smart” selections to be used in “Zone Zero” and throughout defensible spaces in landscaping, the dried leaf litter and biomass of each taxon will then be tested for flammability and fire resilience. Understanding how popular taxa and cultivars differ in their drought tolerance and flammability can provide nursery professionals with information to help further plant breeding and selection, prioritize the propagation and sale of the most drought and fire tolerant species possible, and help Californians make sustainable and fire safe landscaping choices.
NOTE: A second proposal was funded in the 2025-2026 cycle but awardees returned the Award.