Grasslands in warmer regions are dominated by species with the C4 photosynthetic pathway and C4 grasslands are often maintained by frequent fire. Perennial C4 grasses with buds protected at or below the soil surface are resilient to fire, especially when such fire occurs outside of the growing season. Fire can, in fact, indirectly aid such grasses because grasses can fuel rapid fire spread and such fires can wound or kill woody plants that might otherwise overtop and shade grasses in the absence of fire. Grass species, however, are not uniform in their tolerance of fire. Furthermore, although much fire modeling has treated grass fuels as homogeneous, recent work suggests that grasses might also differ in their flammability. Understanding variation in flammability and how it correlates with fire response strategy can reveal eco-evolutionary patterns and help aid fire management in these grasslands. We grew 20 C4 grass species in a greenhouse experiment, measured leaf and canopy traits, and conducted flammability trials of entire individuals. We found that flammability differed across species and was driven by dead biomass retention and canopy volume. However, post fire responses were not related to observed fire behavior. These results indicate that species fire survival was independent of flammability traits and was instead idiosyncratic and species-specific. This does suggest, however, that any potential selection on increased flammability might not be constrained by negative effects on a plants own survival.