AusTraits

Canavalia cathartica

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Canavalia cathartica Thouars

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Canavalia obtusifolia var. insularis Ridl. (taxonomic synonym)
Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Canavalia ensiformis (L.) DC. (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): CoI, ChI, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (1), Cooper_2013 (12), Crowley_2007 (2), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_4 (1), Kew_2019_6 (1), Kooyman_2011 (13), NTH_2014 (4), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (20), Nano_2011 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 30 traits from 68 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.

fire response
flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 100.5 mm (80-125 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 35.75 mm (28-45 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (2); legume_indehiscent (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2); indehiscent (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 103.17 mm (40-240 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 77 mm (30-120 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): obovate (1); orbicular (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
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): climber_herbaceous (4); climber_woody (1) [sources: ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (2) [sources: NTH_2022; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1); woody (1) [sources: NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): climbing (1); prostrate (1) [sources: NTH_2022]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (2) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnyyynnnnn (1); nnnyyynnnnnn (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2014]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 877.89 mg (877.89-877.89 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 16.67 mm (15-18 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 11 mm (10-12 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014]
  • seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
NTH_20231320D. 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/.
Kooyman_2011913R. 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.
Cooper_2013912W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
NTH_201444Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
NTH_202244D. 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/.
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.
Crowley_200722G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Nano_201122C. 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.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_202011F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
Kew_2019_111Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_411Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Oil content data from Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_611Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.