Centaurea melitensis

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Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy: Centaurea melitensis L.

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Centaurea apula Lam. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), NT (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), LHI (formerly naturalised), NI (naturalised), ACT (formerly naturalised), Vic (naturalised), Tas (naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (9), Cheal_2017 (7), Leishman_1992 (7), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (3), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (15), NSWFRD_2014 (2), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (15), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (14), Tsakalos_2020 (17), 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 37 traits from 112 records in 18 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 (2) [sources: Cheal_2017; NSWFRD_2014]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Cheal_2017]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): green (1); yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 2.58 mm (2-3 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): achene (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); grey (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 167 mm2 (167-167 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1992]
leaf_length (numerical): 48.33 mm (10-140 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 10.17 mm (2-60 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): lanceolate (3); linear (1); narrowly_lanceolate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (5); toothed (2); toothed_dentate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (3); unlobed (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_glaucousness (categorical): not_glaucous (2) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_hairs_adult_leaves (categorical): hairy (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (5) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Munroe_2019; Tsakalos_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (8) [sources: ABRS_2022; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): annual (8); biennial (3); perennial (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; Cheal_2017; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (7) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (3) [sources: RBGV_2022; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): yynnnnnnyyyy (1); yyyynnnyyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; Tsakalos_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): widely_dispersed (1) [sources: Cheal_2017]
storage_organ (categorical): no_storage_organ (1) [sources: Leishman_1992]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.49 mg (1.49-1.49 mg) [sources: Leishman_1992]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.83 m (0.2-1 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Tsakalos_2020	16	17	J. L. Tsakalos, M. Renton, F. Riviera, E. J. Veneklaas, M. P. Dobrowolski, and L. Mucina. “Trait-based formal definition of plant functional types and functional communities in the multi-species and multi-traits context”. Ecological Complexity 40 (2019), p. 100787. doi: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2019.100787.
NHNSW_2023	9	15	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/.
RBGV_2023	12	15	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
SAH_2023	11	14	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
ABRS_2023	8	9	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Cheal_2017	7	7	D. Cheal. Growth stages and tolerable fire intervals for Victoria's native vegetation data sets. Fire and adaptive management, report no. 84. Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment Melbourne, 2010.
Leishman_1992	7	7	M. R. Leishman and M. Westoby. “Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits-Evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands”. Journal of Ecology 80 (1992), pp. 417-424. doi: 10.2307/2260687.
RBGV_2022	4	4	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
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/.
ABRS_2022	3	3	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2014_2	3	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.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/.
SAH_2022	3	3	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
NSWFRD_2014	2	2	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.
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.
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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.