Cressa australis

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Convolvulaceae

Taxonomy: Cressa australis R.Br.

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Carpentia floribunda Ewart & O.B.Davies (taxonomic synonym)
Cressa cretica var. australis (R.Br.) Choisy (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cressa cretica L. (misapplied)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Draper_2023 (3), McGlone_2015 (6), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (13), NTH_2022 (2), NTH_2023 (12), RBGV_2022 (3), RBGV_2023 (14), SAH_2022 (2), SAH_2023 (9), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (36), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (26). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 61 traits from 145 records in 20 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: White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): white_cream (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 4.5 mm (4-5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): capsule (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 7.1 mm (2-15 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 3.1 mm (1-6 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (2); lanceolate (3); narrowly_elliptical (1); narrowly_ovate (1); ovate (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (3) [sources: Munroe_2019; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (1); shrub (2); subshrub (6) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): annual (2); perennial (4) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1); woody (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2); prostrate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (2) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (3) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1); zoochory (2) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): invertebrates (2); passive (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnnnn (1); nnnyyyyyyynn (1); yyyyyyyyyyyy (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_1998; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: White_2020]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.22 m (0.12-0.3 m) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (2) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	18	36	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	24	26	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
RBGV_2023	12	14	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2023	11	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/.
NTH_2023	10	12	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
SAH_2023	9	9	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/.
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.
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.
Draper_2023	3	3	J. T. Draper, S. Delean, J. G. Conran, P. Weinstein, and B. S. Simpson. “Life-history characteristics and climate correlates of dioecious plant species in central southern Australia”. Australian Journal of Botany unknown.unknown (2023), p. unknown. doi: 10.1071/BT22110.
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/.
RBGV_2022	3	3	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
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/.
NHNSW_2014_2	2	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NTH_2022	2	2	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
SAH_2022	2	2	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/.
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.
WAH_1998	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.