Basilicum polystachyon

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Lamiaceae

Taxonomy: Basilicum polystachyon (L.) Moench

Synonyms: 14 (APC 2026-07-30)

Basilicum polystachion Moench (taxonomic synonym)
Lumnitzera moschata (R.Br.) Spreng. (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma australe Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma australis Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma brownii Heynh. (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma moschata (R.Br.) Druce (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma moschatus Druce (taxonomic synonym)
Moschosma polystachya Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Moschosma polystachyum (L.) Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Ocimum polystachyon L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Ocymum polystachyon L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Plectranthus micranthus Spreng. (taxonomic synonym)
Plectranthus moschatus R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)
Plectranthus parviflorus R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), Kew_2019_1 (10), Kew_2019_6 (21), Munroe_2019 (1), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (13), Nano_2011 (2), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (28). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 45 traits from 90 records in 13 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 (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 1 mm (1-1 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): mericarp (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 40 mm (15-65 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 22.5 mm (5-40 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
petiole_length (numerical): 3.25 cm (2-4.5 cm) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): ovate (1); trullate (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Munroe_2019]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): annual (3); perennial (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2]
flowering_time (categorical): nnyyyyynnnnn (1) [sources: WAH_1998]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.08 mg (0.05-0.15 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.88 m (0.3-1.2 m) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	25	28	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
Kew_2019_6	1	21	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_2023	10	13	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_1	1	10	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_2022_2	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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/.
Crowley_2007	2	2	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Nano_2011	2	2	C. E. M. Nano and P. J. Clarke. “How do drought and fire influence the patterns of resprouting in Australian deserts?”. Plant Ecology 212 (2011), pp. 2095-2110. doi: 10.1007/s11258-011-9988-x.
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.
Munroe_2019	1	1	S. E. M. Munroe, F. A. McInerney, J. Andrae, N. Welti, G. R. Guerin, E. Leitch, T. Hall, S. Szarvas, R. Atkins, S. Caddy-Retalic, and B. Sparrow. “The Photosynthetic Pathways of Plant Species Surveyed in Australia's National Terrestrial Monitoring Network”. Scientific Data 8 (2021), p. 97. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00877-z.
WAH_1998	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://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.