The Sandhills ecosystems in the coastal plain of South Carolina are nutrient poor systems adapted to frequent fire intervals of two to five years (Workman, 1982). Fires pulse nutrients into the soil, but nutrients are spatially patchy and decrease rapidly due to leaching and uptake (Table 1). The post burn understory of sandhills communities is a sparse and patchy mix of resprouting woody vegetation, forbs, and fire-tolerant bunch grasses within a matrix of bare sand. We asked if three common grasses (Andropogon virginicus, Aristida stricta, and Sorghastrum elliottii) could respond through root or shoot biomass allocation to patchy soil nutrients.