[Fire resistance of 15 main economic tree species in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan, China.].

Liangshan Prefecture is one of the three major forest areas in Sichuan Province and one of the three major disaster areas of forest fire. We measured the physicochemical properties and combustion performances of different organs (leaves and branches) of 15 main economic tree species in Liangshan, and analyzed the bioecology characteristics, silviculture characteristics and value characteristics of different tree species. We investigated the fire resistance of different tree species to screen out fire-resistant species suitable for economic forest development in Liangshan Prefecture, and improve the biological fire prevention ability. The seven physicochemical properties and combustion performances indices of 15 tree species showed significant differences. Except for crude ash and lignin, the weights of moisture content, caloric value, ignition point, crude fat, and crude fibre of leaves were higher than those of branches. Crude fibre index of leaves (9.6%) and the crude ash index of branches (9.9%) were the highest weight indices of the two organs, respectively. Based on the fire resistance, we divided all the species into three classes, i.e ., class Ⅰ (excellent fire-resistance trees) Juglans regia and Morus alba ; class Ⅱ (better fire-resistant trees) Sapium sebiferum , Mangifera indica , Phyllanthus emblica , Eriobotrya japonica , Ligustrum lucidum , Castanea mollissima , and Punica granatum ; class Ⅲ (poor fire-resistant trees) Pinus armandii , Illicium simonsii , Morella rubra , Sapindus mukorossi , Olea europaea and Camellia oleifera . J. regia and M. alba had fireproof solid performance and could be used as the preferred species for fireproof economic forest in Liangshan region. It was suggested that to use class Ⅰ to Ⅱ fire-resistant tree species built the main fireproof isolated forest belt, and pay attention to fire prevention after planting class Ⅲ tree species in a large area.