Acacia alata

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Acacia alata R.Br.

Synonyms: 7 (APC 2026-07-30)

Acacia alata var. genuina Meisn. (nomenclatural synonym)
Acacia alata var. glabrata Seem. (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
Acacia latifrons Seem. & J.A.Schmidt (taxonomic synonym)
Acacia uniglandulosa Seem. & J.A.Schmidt (taxonomic synonym)
Mimosa alata (R.Br.) Poir. (nomenclatural synonym)
Phyllodoce alata (R.Br.) Link (nomenclatural synonym)
Racosperma alatum (R.Br.) Pedley (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (12), Burrows_2008_2 (7), Burrows_2020 (7), Chen_2017 (5), Clarke_2015 (2), Collette_2021 (1), Gallagher_2011_1 (1), Gallagher_2011_3 (1), Harvey_2017 (6), Kew_2019_1 (1), Manea_2011 (1), Maslin_2012 (12), NHNSW_2023 (1), Pekin_2011 (4), Schmidt_1993 (3), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Standish_2019 (6), Sweedman_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (9). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 44 traits from 98 records in 24 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): fire_killed (5); resprouts (1) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Clarke_2015; Harvey_2017; Pekin_2011; Standish_2019]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Clarke_2015]
fire_time_from_fire_to_flowering (numerical): 24 mo (24-24 mo) [sources: Burrows_2020]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 50 mm (20-80 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 8 mm (5-11 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (5) [sources: ABRS_2023; Chen_2017; NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (3) [sources: Chen_2017; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: Chen_2017; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 37.5 mm (5-70 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Maslin_2012]
leaf_width (numerical): 11 mm (2-20 mm) [sources: Maslin_2012]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 91.91 g/m2 (91.91-91.91 g/m2) [sources: Gallagher_2011_3]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Maslin_2012]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1); phyllode (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; Maslin_2012]

life history

plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (6) [sources: ABRS_2022; Maslin_2012; Schmidt_1993; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (8) [sources: ABRS_2022; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Maslin_2012; Pekin_2011; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Maslin_2012]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (3) [sources: Pekin_2011; Schmidt_1993; Standish_2019]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (3) [sources: Pekin_2011; Schmidt_1993; Standish_2019]
reproductive_maturity (numerical): 2 a (2-2 a) [sources: Burrows_2020]
seedbank_location (categorical): canopy_seedbank_absent (1); soil_seedbank (4) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Harvey_2017; Standish_2019]
serotiny (categorical): not_serotinous (1) [sources: Harvey_2017]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): physical_dormancy (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (1) [sources: Burrows_2008_2]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 7.35 mg (7.35-7.35 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 4 mm (2.5-4.5 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Maslin_2012]
seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (2); ovoid_elongated (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; Maslin_2012]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.73 m (0.3-2.1 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Maslin_2012; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
ABRS_2023	8	12	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Maslin_2012	10	12	B. Maslin. WATTLE, Interactive Identification of Australian Acacia. Version 2. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, 2014.
Wright_2000	9	9	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.
Burrows_2008_2	7	7	N. D. Burrows, G. Wardell-Johnson, and B. Ward. “Post-fire juvenile period of plants in south-west Australia forests and implications for fire management”. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 91 (2008), pp. 163-174. ISSN: 0035922X. url: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19156 (visited on 03/27/2025).
Burrows_2020	7	7	N. Burrows. Data from 'Plant Ecological Attributes' theme, NatureMap, DBCA, WA. 2020.
Harvey_2017	6	6	J. M. Harvey, A. J. M. Hopkins, M. A. Langley, C. R. Gosper, M. R. Williams, and C. J. Yates. “Long-term studies of post-fire reproduction in an Australian shrubland and woodland”. Australian Journal of Botany 65.4 (2017), p. 339. doi: 10.1071/bt17011.
Standish_2019	6	6	R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Chen_2017	5	5	Chen, S.-C., Cornwell, W., Z. H.-X., Moles, and A. T. “Plants show more flesh in the tropics: Variation in fruit type along latitudinal and climatic gradients.”. Ecography 40 (2017), pp. 531-538. doi: abs/10.1111/ecog.02010.
Pekin_2011	4	4	B. K. Pekin, R. S. Wittkuhn, M. M. Boer, C. Macfarlane, and P. F. Grierson. “Plant functional traits along environmental gradients in seasonally dry and fire-prone ecosystem”. Journal of Vegetation Science 22 (2011), pp. 1009-1020. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2011.01323.x.
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.
Sweedman_2006	2	4	L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
ABRS_2022	3	3	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Schmidt_1993	3	3	S. Schmidt. “Unpublished data: Compilation of mycorrhizal status data, University of Queensland”. 1993.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Clarke_2015	2	2	P. J. Clarke, M. J. Lawes, B. P. Murphy, J. Russell-Smith, C. E. Nano, R. Bradstock, N. J. Enright, J. B. Fontaine, C. R. Gosper, I. Radford, J. J. Midgley, and R. M. Gunton. “A synthesis of postfire recovery traits of woody plants in Australian ecosystems”. Science of The Total Environment 534 (2015), pp. 31-42. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.04.002.
WAH_2023_2	1	2	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Collette_2021	1	1	J. C. Collette and M. K. J. Ooi. “Distribution of seed dormancy classes across a fire-prone continent: effects of rainfall seasonality and temperature”. Annals of Botany 127.5 (2021), pp. 613-620. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaa203.
Gallagher_2011_1	1	1	R. V. Gallagher, M. R. Leishman, J. T. Miller, C. Hui, D. M. Richardson, J. Suda, and P. Travnicek. “Invasiveness in introduced Australian acacias: The role of species traits and genome size”. Diversity and Distributions 17 (2011), pp. 884-897. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00805.x.
Gallagher_2011_3	1	1	R. V. Gallagher, M. R. Leishman, J. T. Miller, C. Hui, D. M. Richardson, J. Suda, and P. Travnicek. “Invasiveness in introduced Australian acacias: The role of species traits and genome size”. Diversity and Distributions 17 (2011), pp. 884-897. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00805.x.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Manea_2011	1	1	A. Manea. “Unpublished data: Dispersal appendage data for Acacia via Worldwide Wattle, Macquarie University”. 2011.
NHNSW_2023	1	1	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/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.