Commersonia prostrata

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Family Malvaceae

Taxonomy: Commersonia prostrata (Maiden & Betche) C.F.Wilkins & Whitlock

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Rulingia prostrata Maiden & Betche (basionym)

Distribution (APC): NSW, Vic

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (2), Collette_2021 (1), Kew_2019_1 (1), McGlone_2015 (6), NHNSW_2014_2 (1), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (19), NSWFRD_2014 (5), Pickup_2021 (8), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (17), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (21), Yang_2023 (2). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 47 traits from 98 records in 16 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); resprouts (1) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; White_2020]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (3) [sources: Pickup_2021; Yang_2023]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): pink (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_width (numerical): 8 mm (5-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 8 mm (5-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): capsule (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 32.5 mm (10-60 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 17.5 mm (5-25 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
petiole_length (numerical): 1.32 cm (0.3-2 cm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): cordate (1); ovate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): toothed_crenate (1); toothed_serrate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_margin_posture (categorical): revolute (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (8) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): dense (1); prostrate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; White_2020]
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): epizoochory (1); myrmecochory (1) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): ants (1); birds (1) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnyyn (1) [sources: White_2020]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Pickup_2021; Yang_2023]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: Pickup_2021; White_2020]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): physiological_dormancy (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.89 mg (0.67-1.05 mg) [sources: ANBG_2019; Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.3 m (0.3-0.3 m) [sources: McGlone_2015]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	21	21	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	14	19	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	17	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Pickup_2021	5	8	M. Pickup and T. McDonald. Bushfire impacts — A national model for assessing local landscape restoration priorities. Project Phoenix Report. Greening Australia, 2021. url: https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.02R2.pdf.
McGlone_2015	6	6	M. S. McGlone, S. J. Richardson, G. J. Jordan, and G. L. Perry. “Is there a `suboptimal' woody species height? A response to Scheffer et al.”. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 30.1 (2015), pp. 4-5. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.09.007.
NSWFRD_2014	5	5	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_2022	4	4	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/.
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/.
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.
ANBG_2019	1	2	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Yang_2023	2	2	S. Yang. “Unpublished data: Fire response traits scored from national and state floras and the taxonomic literature, University of New South Wales”. 2023.
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/.
NHNSW_2014_2	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.