That's an interesting question. Like most good questions, the answer is
sort of "it depends on...". For one thing, it depends on how big the
eruption was. If you have a small island and a big eruption, you may
destroy all the plants on the island, and there will be no nearby seed
source to get plants established again. You will have to wait for seeds
that blow in or drift in from nearby islands. If it is an island with no
nearby neighbors that might take a long time. On a continent, there will
always be some land somewhere nearby where the plants survived, and as
long as the winds blow in the right direction you will have a supply and
supply mechanism that can start re-establishing plants.
Another thing that you have to take into account is the climate. In wet
places it is much easier to start sprouting new plants whereas in a dry
place it is much harder. So, you could have a big devastating eruption on
a tropical island where almost all the plants were destroyed, compared to
a tiny eruption on some high-altitude or desert volcano. Even though the
eruption on the tropical island was much bigger, the high rainfall would
probably lead to faster plant colinization than on the high and/or dry
volcano.
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
Jcave
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