Prescribed burning reshapes ethnobotanically relevant plant communities in continental Mediterranean forests

Prescribed burning (PB) is widely applied in Mediterranean forests, yet its short-term effects on medicinal plant resources and their potential contribution to cultural ecosystem services remain insufficiently characterised. This study examines how seasonal PBs (spring = early, summer = ecological, autumn = late) influence the availability and functional composition of medicinal understorey species in Pinus nigra subsp. salzmannii forests at 1,250–1,300 m a.s.l. in the Serranía de Cuenca Mountains (central–eastern Iberian Peninsula). Plant cover and diversity were assessed in 12 plots approximately 1 year after burning, and species were classified according to Raunkiaer life-forms and medicinal uses based on ICD-11 therapeutic categories. In the short term, PB reduced total medicinal plant cover by approximately 35–50%, with stronger declines following early- and ecological burns. These reductions were mainly associated with decreases in phanerophytes and, to a lesser extent, chamaephytes, whereas geophytes and hemicryptophytes showed higher post-fire persistence, particularly after early-season burning. In parallel, ICD categories linked to digestive, dermatological, neurological and genitourinary uses exhibited lower cover in burned plots, while some anti-infective and wound-related categories showed greater short-term resilience. α -diversity declined most strongly after ecological burns, indicating short-term compositional homogenisation. Overall, the results suggest that PB acts as a selective short-term filter on medicinal plant availability, with responses mediated by plant functional traits. By combining functional and therapeutic classifications, this study provides an integrative perspective for interpreting short-term fire effects on medicinal plant assemblages and identifies hypotheses to be tested through longer-term post-fire monitoring.