Cenchrus basedowii

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Cenchrus basedowii (Summerh. & C.E.Hubb.) Morrone

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Pennisetum basedowii Summerh. & C.E.Hubb. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: GrassBase_2014 (6), Hall_1981 (19), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_6 (3), Metcalfe_2020_2 (20), Osborne_2014 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), 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 23 traits from 62 records in 11 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 540 mm2 (540-540 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 150 mm (100-200 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_width (numerical): 6 mm (5-7 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (1); herb (1); tussock (2) [sources: Hall_1981; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1); therophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): annual (1); perennial (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (2) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1); epizoochory (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 13.28 mg/g (5.5-44.7 mg/g) [sources: Hall_1981]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 1.27 mg/g (0.5-3.4 mg/g) [sources: Hall_1981]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 4.15 mg (4.15-4.15 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Metcalfe_2020_2]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.62 m (0.1-1.4 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	18	20	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
Hall_1981	3	19	T. J. Hall. “The nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of some pasture species in the Dichanthium-Eulalia Grasslands of North-West Queensland.”. The Rangeland Journal 3.1 (1981), pp. 67-73. doi: 10.1071/rj9810067.
GrassBase_2014	3	6	W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
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.
Kew_2019_6	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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/.
Osborne_2014	1	1	C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.