C. salviifolius is a diploid, insect-pollinated shrub displaying an obligatory seeding reproductive strategy that makes it particularly well adapted to disturbances such as recurrent fires. C. salviifolius is therefore a pyrophilous pioneer shrub that is not particularly tolerant of competition, but that has an ability to colonize rapidly disturbed and freshly burnt sites consisting of poor, acid soil. This ecological feature can be seen as a combination of opportunism, heliophytism and pyrophytism (Moretti et al. 2006).