The Erechthites hieracifolia. It is not properly a grass.
1792. The fire-weed, which spontaneously grows on all burnt land. This fire-weed is an annual plant, with a succulent stalk and long jagged leaf; it grows to the height of five or six feet…. It … never vegetates, except on the ashes of burnt wood.—Jeremy Belknap, ‘New Hampshire,’ iii. 133–4. (Partly cited, N.E.D.)
1821. Immediately after the fires, a species of grass springs up, sometimes called fire grass, because it usually succeeds a conflagration.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ iv. 61.
1857. There were great fields of fire-weed (Epilobium angustifolium) on all sides, which presented great masses of pink.—H. D. Thoreau, ‘The Maine Woods,’ p. 262 (1864).
