Boerhavia diffusa

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Family Nyctaginaceae

Taxonomy: Boerhavia diffusa L.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Boerhaavia diffusa F.Muell. (orthographic variant)
Boerhavia caespitosa Ridl. (taxonomic synonym)
Boerhavia diffusa L. var. diffusa (nomenclatural synonym)
Boerhavia diffusa var. eudiffusa Heimerl (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Boerhavia diffusa var. pubescens Choisy (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, CoI, ChI, Qld (naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (8), Kew_2019_1 (3), Kew_2019_5 (1), Kew_2019_6 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (21), Wright_2000 (9). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 42 traits from 53 records in 10 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: White_2020]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 4 mm (4-4 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): achene (1); anthocarp (1); nut (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 60 mm (60-60 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
petiole_length (numerical): 2.5 cm (2.5-2.5 cm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); ovate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): opposite (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): annual (2); perennial (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): prostrate (1) [sources: White_2020]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): epizoochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Kew_2019_5; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): mammals (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyynnnnnnny (1) [sources: White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.84 mg (1.37-2.57 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	21	21	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
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.
ABRS_2023	8	8	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
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.
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.
Kew_2019_1	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. 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.
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/.
Kew_2019_6	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.