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This paper reports on a series of heating experiments that focus on <i>n</i>-alkanes extracted from leaf, bark, and xylem tissues of the <i>Celtis australis</i> plant. These lipid biomarkers were analysed for their compound-specific hydrogen isotopic composition (δ²H_wax) under limited oxygen conditions at 150, 250, 350, and 450 °C. Our results reveal isotopic variations in wax lipids of different plant organs during short-term low-temperature combustion. We conclude that, in the absence of a detailed characterisation of the depositional environment in advance of sampling, δ²H_wax values in archaeological or otherwise highly anthropogenic environments should be interpreted cautiously. In addition, we observed that variation in δ²H_wax of leaves is minimal at temperatures ≤ 350 °C, highlighting the potential for δ²H_wax in thermally altered combustion substrates to yield palaeoclimate information, which could allow researchers to investigate links between archaeological and climatic records at a high spatial and temporal resolution.