A lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown

Root crown

A root crown is that part of a root system from which a stem arises. Since roots and stems have quite different vascular anatomies, major vascular changes take place at this point....

 possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains bud

Bud

In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have...

s from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...

.

Plants possessing lignotubers include Eucalyptus marginata (Jarrah), most mallee

Mallee (habit)

Mallee is the growth habit of certain eucalypt species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, usually to a height of no more than ten metres...

s, and many Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

species.

Many plants with lignotubers grow in a shrubby habit, but with multiple stems arising from the lignotuber. The term lignotuberous shrub is widely used to describe this habit.

Fire ecology

Lignotubers are part of fire ecology

Fire ecology

Fire ecology is concerned with the processes linking the natural incidence of fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects of this fire. Many ecosystems, such as the North American prairie and chaparral ecosystems, and the South African savanna, have evolved with fire as a natural and necessary...

 and plant adaptation and regeneration, such as chaparral

Chaparral

Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico...

 genera and species.

See also

• Crown sprouting
  Crown sprouting
  Crown sprouting is the ability of a plant to regenerate its shoot system after destruction by activating dormant vegetative structures to produce regrowth from the root crown . These dormant structures take the form of lignotubers or basal epicormic buds...
  
  
• Resprouter
  Resprouter
  Resprouters are plant species that are able to survive fire by the activation of dormant vegetative buds to produce regrowth.Plants may resprout by means of lignotubers at the base or epicormic buds on the trunk or major branches....
  
  
• California chaparral and woodlands
  California chaparral and woodlands
  The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of lower northern, central, and southern California and northwestern Baja California , located on the west coast of North America...
  
  
• Epicormic shoot
  Epicormic shoot
  An epicormic shoot is a shoot growing from an epicormic bud which lies underneath the bark of a trunk, stem, or branch of a plant.-Epicormic buds:...
  
  , also fire-induced buds