Cenchrus setiger

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Cenchrus setiger Vahl

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cenchrus setigerus Vahl (orthographic variant)
Pennisetum setigerum (Vahl) Wipff (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), NT (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (1), Metcalfe_2020_2 (20), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (1), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (7), Nano_2011 (1), Simpson_2021 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 27 traits from 49 records in 13 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): resprouts (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1); hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 1.5 mm (1.5-1.5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006; WAH_2023_2]
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): 432 mm2 (432-432 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 160 mm (20-300 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_width (numerical): 4.42 mm (1.8-7 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): conduplicate (1); flat (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Munroe_2019]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (2); tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Simpson_2021; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1); stoloniferous (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_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]
flowering_time (categorical): yynnnnnnnnny (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): root_crown (1) [sources: Simpson_2021]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.77 m (0.5-1 m) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2023; 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.
NHNSW_2023	6	7	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/.
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.
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/.
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/.
Simpson_2021	2	2	K. J. Simpson, E. C. Jardine, S. Archibald, E. J. Forrestel, C. E. R. Lehmann, G. H. Thomas, and C. P. Osborne. “Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders”. New Phytologist 230 (2021), pp. 832-844. doi: 10.1111/nph.17069.
WAH_2023_2	2	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.
Crowley_2007	1	1	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
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.
NHNSW_2014_2	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Nano_2011	1	1	C. 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_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.