The alignment of vorticity and scalar gradient with the eigendirections of the rate of strain tensor is investigated in turbulent buoyant nonpremixed horizontal and vertical flames. The uniqueness of a buoyant nonpremixed flame is that it contains regions with distinct alignment characteristics. The strain-enstrophy angle &PSgr; is used to identify these regions. Examination of the vorticity field and the vorticity production in these different regions indicates that &PSgr; and consequently the alignment properties near the flame surface identified by the mixture fraction bandF≈Fstdiffer from those in the fuel region,F>Fstand the oxidizer region,F<Fst.TheF≈Fstband shows strain-dominance resulting in vorticity/&agr; alignment whileF>Fst(andF<Fstfor the vertical flame) band(s) show(s) vorticity/&bgr; alignment. The implication of this result is that the scalar dissipation,&egr;F,attains its maximum value always nearF≈Fst.These results are also discussed within the framework of recent dynamical results [Galanti &etal;, Nonlinearity10, 1675 (1997)] suggesting that the Navier-Stokes equations evolve towards an attracting solution. It is shown that the properties of such an attracting solution are also consistent with our results of buoyant turbulent nonpremixed flames. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.