Although boreal forests are biomes which are characterized by periodical forest wildfires, very little is known about adaptations to fire in forest herbs. We investigated whether a putatively fire-dependent herbaceous species e Pulsatilla patens e demonstrated adaptive responses to environmental cues that reflect differences in pre-fire and post-fire environments (the presence of ericoid litter and charcoal, and light levels). For comparison, we included in the experiment a close congeneric species that is less bound to forest ecosystems (Pulsatilla pratensis) and a morphologically similar mesic grassland species from the same family (Ranunculus polyanthemos), as examples of species for which adaptations to fire should be of lower value, or of no value at all, respectively. The addition of ericoid litter to the soil generally enhanced plant growth, suggesting that its negative effect on plant germination and growth is not as widespread as previously thought. In both Pulsatilla species charcoal without forest litter retarded plant growth, but in combination with ericoid litter the negative effect disappeared or was even replaced by a slightly positive effect. Such an interactive effect was absent in the grassland species R. polyanthemos. The response of Pulsatilla species to different post-fire signals may be explained by adaptive down-regulation of growth after high-intensity fire e small plant size can be advantageous in sparse and well illuminated field-layer vegetation e and intense growth in the more competitive situation following weak fire. An additional experiment demonstrated that the effects of fire-related treatments were not mediated by differential AM infection.