AusTraits

Capparis sepiaria

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Capparaceae

Taxonomy: Capparis sepiaria L.

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Capparis umbellata R.Br. ex DC. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (18), ATRP_2020 (1), Clarke_2015 (2), Cooper_2004 (1), Cooper_2013 (13), Crowley_2007 (2), Kooyman_2011 (11), NHNSW_2016 (2), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (2), NTH_2023 (15), Nano_2011 (2), RBGK_2014 (1), RussellSmith_2012 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 38 traits from 94 records in 21 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): 11.5 mm (8-15 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 12 mm (8-15 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 12.5 mm (10-15 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): berry (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): black (1); purple (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 1006 mm2 (1006-1006 mm2) [sources: NHNSW_2016]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 61.67 mm (15-110 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 26.67 mm (5-55 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • petiole_length (numerical): 0.55 cm (0.1-1 cm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (2); linear (1); obovate (1); ovate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_base_shape (categorical): acute (1); cordate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2016; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): climber (1); climber_herbaceous (3); climber_woody (2); shrub (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1); woody (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): climbing (1) [sources: ABRS_2022]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (2) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): endozoochory (1) [sources: Cooper_2004]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnyyyyynn (1); nnyyyyyyyyyn (1); yynnnnnnyyyy (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2014; WAH_1998]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: RussellSmith_2012]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (2); epicormic_buds (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 41.71 mg (41.71-41.71 mg) [sources: RBGK_2014]
  • seed_length (numerical): 5.17 mm (5-6 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 5 mm (5-5 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 4.44 m (0.5-6 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
ABRS_20231318Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_20231115D. 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/.
Cooper_20131013W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
Kooyman_2011811R. 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.
ABRS_202244Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
RussellSmith_201244J. 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_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.
NTH_201433Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
WAH_2022_233Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Clarke_201522P. 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.
Crowley_200722G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
NHNSW_201622National Herbarium of NSW. Trait measurements for NSW rainforest species from PLantNET. 2016. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NTH_202222D. 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/.
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.
WAH_2023_212Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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.
Cooper_200411W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Fruits of the Australian tropical rainforest. Nokomis Editions, 2004. ISBN: 9780958174213.
RBGK_201411Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID). 2014. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_199811Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.