Knowledge about wildland fuel is essential to fire prevention and to both biodiversity conservation and reduction of the negative impacts of fire. Little is known of flammability of dead fuels, especially for non-reconstructed samples that are hypothesized to represent the field conditions.To assess the impact of vegetation types and of fire regime on the flammability of dead fuels, samples of litter were collected undisturbed (i.e. keeping the structure of litter layers) in 30 study sites spread over the limestone Provence. The sampling plan comprised the most representative ecosystems of the study area: pure Pinus halepensis stands, mixed pine-oak stands and shrublands. Three classes of litter depth were studied (low, medium and high) to account the variability existing in the field. Sampling also included the number of fires in each site since 1960 (no fire, 1 or 2 fires and ≥3 fires) and the time interval since the last fire (> 40 years, interval 40-15 years and ≤15 years).Flammability experiments were carried out in laboratory using a glowing firebrand and a 10 km.h-1 wind. The main variables recorded were: ignition frequency, time-to-ignition, flaming duration, flame rate of spread, flame propagation, mean flame temperature, mean flame height and rate of consumption.Results showed that the ignition frequency was higher in mixed stands than in pure pine stands whereas the time-to ignition, flaming duration and rate of consumption were the highest in pure pine stands. The mean flame height and the flame propagation decreased with the increase of the number of fires and the time-to-ignition was the highest when the interval since the last fire was the shortest. The increase of the litter depth entailed an increase of the mean flame temperature, the mean flame height and the flame propagation. The characteristics of litter samples explained in part these results.