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Surinam cherry showed weak flammability in a Brazilian laboratory study, despite burning with high intensity.
Lucas and colleagues tested freshly collected fine plant material from Eugenia uniflora on an epiradiator. Their conference paper classified the material as weakly flammable while describing high combustion intensity. Those classifications address different parts of burning: the ease of ignition and the intensity of the resulting flames. A favorable ignition classification does not mean that flames, once established, were weak.
A later study by the same research group retained both classifications. Its authors identified potential for green firebreaks, but called for field tests that account for whole-plant architecture. These experiments concern sampled material, leaving the performance of an established garden barrier unproven.
Planting also raises a separate ecological concern. The US-RIIS registers record Surinam cherry as widespread invasive in Hawaii and invasive in the conterminous United States. The continental entry is regional context, not a finding for every state. That invasive behavior belongs alongside the laboratory classification when considering whether to introduce the tree into a landscape.
Form
tree
Rated in
Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Global
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence
Evidence regions
Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Global
Maintenance
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in FL, HI, PR, VI.
Native range
Introduced / established
3 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
2 ecological invasive reports.
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.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Conditions in the fire evidence
These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.
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.
6 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Fonseca2021: Fonseca, F. M., da Silva Junior, J. G., de Cerqueira Jacobs, R., Kovalsyki, B., Batista, A. C., de Souza Ferreira, T., & Tetto, A. F. (2021). Inflamabilidade de espécies arbóreas para utilização em cortinas de segurança na interface urbano-rural. Biodiversidade, 2, 32-42.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Fonseca2021-1; sampling ND.
