Calothamnus quadrifidus

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Myrtaceae

Taxonomy: Calothamnus quadrifidus R.Br.

Synonyms: 17 (APC 2026-07-30)

Beaufortia pinifolia F.Cels (taxonomic synonym)
Billotia acerosa Heynh. (taxonomic synonym)
Billottia acerosa Colla (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus clavata Lodd., G.Lodd. & W.Lodd. (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus clavatus J.Mackay ex Schauer (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus clavatus Sweet (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus laevigata Schauer (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus laevigatus Schauer (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus purpurea Endl. (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus purpureus Endl. (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus quadrifida R.Br. (orthographic variant)
Calothamnus quadrifidus f. acerosus (Colla) Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus quadrifidus f. normalis Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Calothamnus quadrifidus var. hirsutus Regel (taxonomic synonym)
Melaleuca acerosa (Colla) G.Don (taxonomic synonym)
Melaleuca acerosa (Colla) G.Don var. acerosa (taxonomic synonym)
Melaleuca quadrifida (R.Br.) Craven & R.D.Edwards (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA (native and naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (1), Barrett_2009 (42), Burrows_2008_2 (8), Burrows_2020 (8), Clarke_2015 (2), Collette_2021 (1), Enright_2014 (37), Gosper_2012 (6), Munroe_2019 (1), RBGK_2014 (3), Shedley_2007 (32), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Standish_2019 (8), Stephens_2021 (1), Sweedman_2006 (4), Tsakalos_2022 (2), Veneklaas_2003 (20), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wheeler_2002 (10), Wright_2000 (6). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 51 traits from 206 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 (4); partial_resprouting (4); resprouts (36) [sources: Barrett_2009; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Clarke_2015; Enright_2014; Gosper_2012; Shedley_2007; Standish_2019]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (26); post_fire_recruitment_absent (1) [sources: Barrett_2009; Clarke_2015; Enright_2014; Shedley_2007]
fire_time_from_fire_to_flowering (numerical): 30 mo (24-36 mo) [sources: Burrows_2020]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): capsule (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Wright_2000]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 19.5 mm (9-30 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_width (numerical): 0.65 mm (0.3-1 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 332.23 g/m2 (332.23-332.23 g/m2) [sources: Veneklaas_2003]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.47 g/g (0.47-0.47 g/g) [sources: Veneklaas_2003]
leaf_water_content_per_dry_mass (numerical): 0.53 g/g (0.53-0.53 g/g) [sources: Veneklaas_2003]
leaf_type (categorical): needle (1) [sources: Veneklaas_2003]
leaf_shape (categorical): linear (1) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Wheeler_2002]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Munroe_2019; Veneklaas_2003]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (23) [sources: Barrett_2009; Gosper_2012; Shedley_2007; Standish_2019; Veneklaas_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; Wheeler_2002]
life_history (categorical): perennial (8) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023; Wheeler_2002]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (2) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): compact (1); erect (1); spreading (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Veneklaas_2003]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: Standish_2019; Veneklaas_2003]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnyyyyyyy (2) [sources: Stephens_2021; WAH_1998]
seedbank_location (categorical): canopy_seedbank (11); soil_seedbank_absent (1) [sources: Barrett_2009; Enright_2014; Gosper_2012; Shedley_2007; Standish_2019]
serotiny (categorical): serotinous (1) [sources: Gosper_2012]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): non_dormant (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2022]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_buds (19); basal_stem_buds (1) [sources: Barrett_2009; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Shedley_2007; Tsakalos_2022]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 10.25 mg/g (8.5-12 mg/g) [sources: Standish_2019; Veneklaas_2003]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 0.5 mg/g (0.5-0.5 mg/g) [sources: Standish_2019]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.44 mg (0.15-1.35 mg) [sources: ANBG_2019; RBGK_2014]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 2.22 m (0.9-3 m) [sources: WAH_2023_2; Wheeler_2002]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Barrett_2009	5	42	S. Barrett, S. Comer, N. McQuoid, M. Porter, C. Tiller, and D. Utber. Identification and Conservation of Fire Sensitive Ecosystems and Species of the South Coast Natural Resource Management Region.. government. Department of Conservation and Land Management, South Coast Region, Western Australia, 2009.
Enright_2014	3	37	N. J. Enright, J. B. Fontaine, B. B. Lamont, B. P. Miller, and V. C. Westcott. “Resistance and resilience to changing climate and fire regime depend on plant functional traits”. Journal of Ecology 102 (2014), pp. 1572-1581. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12306.
Shedley_2007	6	32	E. F. Shedley. Fire and Biodiversity Guidelines for the Avon Basin: Consultant Report to the Avon Catchment Council and the Department of Environment and Conservation, August 2007. Tech. rep. Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Australia, 2007.
Veneklaas_2003	18	20	E. J. Veneklaas and P. Poot. “Seasonal patterns in water use and leaf turnover of different plant functional types in a species-rich woodland, south-western Australia”. Plant and Soil 257.2 (2003), pp. 295-304. doi: 10.1023/a:1027383920150.
Wheeler_2002	8	10	J. R. Wheeler, N. G. Marchant, and M. Lewington. Flora of the south west: Bunbury, Augusta, Denmark. Australian Biological Resources Study ; University of Western Australia Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780642568168.
Burrows_2008_2	4	8	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	4	8	N. Burrows. Data from 'Plant Ecological Attributes' theme, NatureMap, DBCA, WA. 2020.
Standish_2019	8	8	R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Gosper_2012	6	6	C. R. Gosper, C. J. Yates, and S. M. Prober. “Changes in plant species and functional composition with time since fire in two mediterranean climate plant communities”. Journal of Vegetation Science 23.6 (2012), pp. 1071-1081. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.01434.x.
Wright_2000	6	6	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.
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.
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/.
RBGK_2014	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID). 2014. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.
Tsakalos_2022	2	2	J. L. Tsakalos, G. Ottaviani, S. Chelli, A. Rea, S. Elder, M. P. Dobrowolski, and L. Mucina. “Plant clonality in a soil-impoverished open ecosystem: insights from southwest Australian shrublands”. Annals of Botany 130.7 (2022), pp. 981-990. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcac131.
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.
ANBG_2019	1	1	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
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.
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.
Stephens_2021	1	1	R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
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.