Flowering Patterns of Understory Herbs 30 Years after Disturbance of Subalpine Old-Growth Forests by Tephra from Mount St. Helens

Premise of research. We sought to determine the role of flowering in recovery of understory herbs from a major disturbance and to determine the effects of plant and environmental factors on flowering patterns.Methodology. We counted flowering and nonflowering shoots in permanent plots eight to 10 times over a 30-year period for all 48 understory herb species in four subalpine old-growth conifer forests that received tephra (aerially transported...