1 In 1990 and 1992, we experimentally manipulated fire season in a longleaf pine sandhill community in north Florida, USA, and studied floral induction, bud herbivory, clone fecundity, and seedling dynamics of a perennial forb, Pityopsis graminifolia. In addition, some proximate cues of fire-related floral induction were examined using a factorial arrangement of clipping season and fertilization treatments in 1992. 2 Flowering was induced by fire. Results from the clipping/fertilization experiment showed that removal of canopy and litter is an important inductive cue associated with fire. Floral induction of clipped shoots was further influenced by soil fertility and the season during which clipping occurred. 3 Fire season influenced the proportion of shoots that bolted, the size of bolting shoots, and bud herbivory. Floral induction was greater following May and August (growing-season) fires than following January fires in 1990 and 1992. Bud herbivory by white-tailed deer was lower following growing-season fires than following January fires in 1990 and 1992. As a result, in 1992, fecundity of growing-season-burned clones was greater than that of January-burned clones, with greater shoot size leading to greater fecundity in May-burned clones than in August-burned clones. 4 Seedling emergence in early 1991, following 1990 fires, was highest in May-burned plots, intermediate in August-burned plots, and lowest in January-burned plots. Seedling survivorship through December 1992 was low in all fire season plots, but still varied in response to fire season (6% in May-burned plots, 2% in August-burned plots, and 0% in January-burned plots). Successful reproduction of 1991 cohorts following 1992 fires only occurred in May-burned plots. 5 Results from the current study suggest that reproductive success in P. graminifolia is greatest in May, intermediate in August and lowest in January. These rankings are the same as the relative likelihoods that longleaf pine savannahs will burn at these different times of the year.