Fireweed spotted in San Francisco, a wildfire colonizer reaching urban soil
iNaturalist: mezhkaper
Native Plants
Fireweed is one of the fastest colonizers of disturbed ground you'll ever see, and spotting it in an urban county like San Francisco tells you something real about where bare or burned soil opens up space for wild plants to move in.
Fireweed is a tall, showy wildflower with bright pink-magenta blooms that's famous for being the first plant to carpet land after wildfires or landslides. Someone in San Francisco County spotted and documented it at a research-grade level, meaning the ID was confirmed with enough detail to count as reliable scientific data. It's a native plant across much of North America, and catching it in an urban county is a nice reminder that wild species don't stop at city limits.
Key Findings
Research-grade observation confirmed in San Francisco County, US-CA, extending the documented urban presence of Chamaenerion angustifolium
Fireweed is a native disturbance-specialist, typically among the first plants to recolonize burned, logged, or otherwise disturbed ground
Citizen-science platform iNaturalist provided the observation record, contributing to range-mapping datasets for this species
chevron_right Technical Summary
A research-grade observation of fireweed was recorded in San Francisco County, California, adding a verified data point to this plant's documented range along the West Coast.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) observed in San Francisco County, US-CA, US
Research-grade observation of fireweed in San Francisco County, US-CA, US.
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
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Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family, Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed and in the British Isles as both fireweed and rosebay willowherb. It is also known by the taxonomic synonyms Chamerion angustifolium and Epilobium an...