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Blue finger is favorably listed for fire performance, but the sources do not establish that it is fire resistant.
Three references recommended blue finger for high-fire-risk areas in the University of California Forest Products Laboratory’s compilation. The Diablo Firesafe Council lists it as a succulent shrub in Table 1, where favorable fire-performance ratings must come from at least that many references. One source calls Senecio mandraliscae blue chalk sticks and the other blue ice plant, but both refer to the same shrub.
Those favorable findings need context. In compiling more than 25 earlier plant lists, the university warned of undefined terms and the frequent lack of a scientific basis. The council published lists backed by a key to 57 references, but it likewise said the ranking terms in those references were mostly undefined. A favorable category therefore does not explain how readily blue finger ignites, how much heat it produces, or how it behaves under particular conditions.
The practical conclusion remains mixed. Two California institutions preserve favorable recommendations for blue finger, including use in high-fire-risk landscaping, but their categories do not settle the plant’s fire resistance. The favorable listings are encouraging, though they should not be treated as a guarantee of fire performance.
Form
shrub
Rated in
California
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.
The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database [ucfpl-1997] (with its recommendation)
Fire Performance of Common Plants: Table 1 (favorable in 3 or more references) [diablo-guide-to-plants-three-reference-vote] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original sourceCorroborationMirrorlineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants
“Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 9,10,25)”
The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Senecio mandraliscae (Blue ice plant) as shrub, succulent, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 3 of its 57 numbered references for this row (9,10,25). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.
