Abrus precatorius

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Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Abrus precatorius L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld, NSW

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, NT eFlora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (1), Brock_1993 (9), Cooper_2013 (13), Kew_2019_1 (12), Kew_2019_2 (1), Kew_2019_4 (2), Kew_2019_5 (1), Kew_2019_6 (7), Kooyman_2011 (8), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (19), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (18), Rice_1991 (1), Schmidt_2003 (19), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (10), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (29). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 70 traits from 167 records in 22 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): resprouts (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 40.5 mm (20-65 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 13 mm (10-15 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (5) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 15.12 mm (5-25 mm) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 5.5 mm (3-8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.46 g/g (0.46-0.46 g/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_shape (categorical): oblong (2); ovate (2) [sources: Brock_1993; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (4) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
plant_growth_form (categorical): climber (1); climber_herbaceous (7); climber_woody (2) [sources: ATRP_2020; Brock_1993; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Rice_1991; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (5) [sources: Brock_1993; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1); woody (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
leaf_phenology (categorical): deciduous (3); evergreen (1) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014; Schmidt_2003]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): hydrochory (1) [sources: Kew_2019_5]
dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
flowering_time (categorical): nyyyynnnnnnn (2); yyyyynnnnnnn (1) [sources: Brock_1993; Cooper_2013; NTH_2014]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 30.5 mg/g (28-33 mg/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_delta13C (numerical): -29.94 {delta}[ppth] (-31.07--28.8 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Schmidt_2003]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 74.82 mg (22.04-102.4 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 6.38 mm (5-9 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 4.58 mm (4-6 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 10 m (10-10 m) [sources: Brock_1993]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	24	29	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
NHNSW_2023	13	19	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Schmidt_2003	12	19	S. Schmidt and G. R. Stewart. “d15N values of tropical savanna and monsoon forest species reflect root specialisations and soil nitrogen status”. Oecologia 134 (2003), pp. 569-577. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-1150-y.
NTH_2023	12	18	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
Cooper_2013	10	13	W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
Kew_2019_1	1	12	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wright_2000	10	10	I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.
Brock_1993	8	9	J. Brock and A. Dunlop. Native plants of northern Australia. Reed New Holland, 1993. ISBN: 9781877069246.
Kooyman_2011	7	8	R. Kooyman, M. Rossetto, W. Cornwell, and M. Westoby. “Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and subtropical rain forests”. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20 (2011), pp. 707-716. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00641.x.
Kew_2019_6	1	7	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Sjostrom_2006	4	4	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
NHNSW_2022	3	3	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NTH_2014	3	3	Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
NTH_2022	3	3	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
Kew_2019_4	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Oil content data from Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_2020	1	1	F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
Kew_2019_2	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_5	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed dispersal data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Rice_1991	1	1	B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Growth form of Kakadu plant species, Macquarie University”. 1991.
WAH_2022_2	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.