AusTraits

Aristida caput-medusae

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Aristida caput-medusae Domin

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Aristida ramosa var. compacta Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Aristida vagans var. compacta Benth. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (8), GrassBase_2014 (6), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_6 (4), Metcalfe_2020_2 (17), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (7), Osborne_2014 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (18). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 41 traits from 78 records in 14 datasets.

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

flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 5.05 mm (4-6.1 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 13.5 mm2 (13.5-13.5 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 35 mm (20-40 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; GrassBase_2014]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 1.08 mm (0.5-2 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; GrassBase_2014; NHNSW_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): conduplicate (1); convolute (1); flat (1); involute (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Osborne_2014; White_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (2); tussock (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
  • life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1); wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): epizoochory (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
  • dispersers (categorical): mammals (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • flowering_time (categorical): yyyyynnnyyyy (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.68 mg (0.68-0.68 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 5.05 mm (4-6.1 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
White_20201818M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
Metcalfe_2020_21617D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
ABRS_202378Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_202367N. 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/.
GrassBase_201436W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
Kew_2019_614Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_202244N. 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/.
Sjostrom_200644A. 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.
ABRS_202233Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2014_222Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_111Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Osborne_201411C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.