Cajanus acutifolius

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Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Cajanus acutifolius (F.Muell. ex Benth.) Maesen

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Atylosia acutifolia (F.Muell. ex Benth.) S.T.Reynolds & Pedley (nomenclatural synonym)
Atylosia acutifolia F.Muell. (basionym)
Rhynchosia acutifolia F.Muell. ex Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Rhynchosia quadricallosa Domin (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Clarke_2015 (3), Cooper_2013 (13), Crowley_2007 (2), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_6 (2), Kooyman_2011 (12), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (21), Nano_2011 (2), RussellSmith_2012 (4), Schmidt_2003 (16), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (24). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 60 traits from 120 records in 18 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 (4); resprouts (1) [sources: Clarke_2015; Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; RussellSmith_2012; Schmidt_2003]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Clarke_2015]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): white_cream (1); yellow_orange (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
flower_diameter (numerical): 1.4 cm (1.4-1.4 cm) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 19 mm (15-25 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 7.75 mm (6-9 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); yellow (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 38.5 mm (24-65 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 16 mm (9-25 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.32 g/g (0.29-0.36 g/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); lanceolate (1); ovate (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): cuneate (1); rounded (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (2) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (1); shrub (6) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2); spreading (1) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (3) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014; Schmidt_2003]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyynnnnnnn (1); yyyyyyynnnnn (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2014]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: RussellSmith_2012]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (3) [sources: Clarke_2015; Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 16.9 mg/g (16.8-17 mg/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_delta13C (numerical): -28.73 {delta}[ppth] (-28.73--28.72 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Schmidt_2003]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 20.43 mg (20.43-20.43 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 4.08 mm (3-5 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 3.62 mm (3-4 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
seed_shape (categorical): ovoid_flattened (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.69 m (0.5-2 m) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	18	24	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
NTH_2023	15	21	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/.
Schmidt_2003	12	16	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.
Cooper_2013	10	13	W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
Kooyman_2011	10	12	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.
NTH_2022	4	4	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/.
RussellSmith_2012	4	4	J. Russell-Smith, M. R. Gardener, C. Brock, K. Brennan, C. P. Yates, and B. Grace. “Fire persistence traits can be used to predict vegetation response to changing fire regimes at expansive landscape scales - an Australian example”. Journal of Biogeography 39 (2012), pp. 1657-1668. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02714.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.
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/.
Clarke_2015	3	3	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.
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.
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).
Kew_2019_6	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. 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.