Cassinia cunninghamii

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Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy: Cassinia cunninghamii DC.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cassinia cunninghami DC. (orthographic variant)
Cassinia patens DC. (nomenclatural synonym)
Helichrysum cunninghamii (DC.) Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Clarke_2015 (2), Collette_2021 (1), Fonseca_2000 (9), Kew_2019_1 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (5), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (13), NSWFRD_2014 (6), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 44 traits from 66 records in 12 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 (3) [sources: Clarke_2015; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): red_brown (1); yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 0.5 mm (0.5-0.5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): achene (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 9 mm2 (6.6-11.4 mm2) [sources: Fonseca_2000]
leaf_length (numerical): 25 mm (20-30 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 0.95 mm (0.7-1.5 mm) [sources: Fonseca_2000; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_dry_mass (numerical): 2.5 mg (2-3 mg) [sources: Fonseca_2000]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 298.57 g/m2 (294.12-303.03 g/m2) [sources: Fonseca_2000]
leaf_shape (categorical): linear (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_margin_posture (categorical): revolute (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_arrangement (categorical): crowded (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (5) [sources: Fonseca_2000; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): prostrate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
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): anemochory (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): wind (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnyyyyyyn (2); nnnnyyyyyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): transient (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): non_dormant (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (1) [sources: Clarke_2015]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.15 mg (0.15-0.15 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.25 m (1-1.5 m) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	19	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	10	13	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Fonseca_2000	5	9	C. R. Fonseca, J. M. Overton, B. Collins, and M. Westoby. “Shifts in trait-combinations along rainfall and phosphorus gradients”. Journal of Ecology 88 (2000), pp. 964-977. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00506.x.
NSWFRD_2014	6	6	B. Kenny, C. Orscheg, E. Tasker, M. A. Gill, and R. Bradstock. NSW Flora Fire Response Database, v2.1. database. NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment, 2014.
NHNSW_2014_2	5	5	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.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.
NHNSW_2022	3	3	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
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.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.
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.