Table 1.

Summary of hypotheses regarding evolution of flammable traits in plants, and possible examples.

Syndrome	Ancestral state	Evolved state	Example	References
Mutch	Recovery/tolerance of fire	High flammability	Eucalyptus	Crisp et al., 2011
Mutch's converse	High flammability	Recovery/tolerance of fire	Serotiny and thick bark in Pinus Thick bark, xylopodia in savanna plants Fire-cued flowering in orchids	He et al., 2012 Simon et al., 2009 Bytebier et al., 2011
Midgley's alternative	High flammability	Low flammability	Branch shedding in Pinus	He et al., 2012

It is important to note that proving evolution of flammable traits, fire tolerance and post fire recovery demands extraordinarily rigorous studies that are yet to be achieved (Bradshaw et al., 2011a,b; Keeley et al., 2011b). We call this stricture “Bradshaw's null.”