Cymbopogon bombycinus

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Cymbopogon bombycinus (R.Br.) Domin

Synonyms: 17 (APC 2026-07-30)

Andropogon bombycinus R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)
Andropogon exaltatus var. lanatus (R.Br.) Hack. (taxonomic synonym)
Andropogon lanatus R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)
Andropogon procerus var. schultzii Hack. (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon bombycinus (R.Br.) Domin var. bombycinus (nomenclatural synonym)
Cymbopogon bombycinus var. townsvillensis Domin (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon bombycinus var. typicus Domin (nomenclatural synonym)
Cymbopogon exaltatus var. lanatus (R.Br.) A.Camus (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon exaltatus var. lanatus (R.Br.) Domin (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon lanatus Roberty (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon nardus subvar. bombycinus (R.Br.) Roberty (nomenclatural synonym)
Cymbopogon nardus subvar. schultzii (Hack.) Roberty (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon obtectus J.M.Black (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon procerus var. schultzii (Hack.) A.Camus (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon procerus var. schultzii (Hack.) Domin (taxonomic synonym)
Cymbopogon schultzii (Hack.) Roberty (taxonomic synonym)
Sorgum bombycinum (R.Br.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (4), Crowley_2007 (1), Draper_2023 (3), GrassBase_2014 (8), Kew_2019_1 (2), Kew_2019_6 (5), Metcalfe_2020_2 (16), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014 (1), Nano_2011 (1), Osborne_2014 (1), Simpson_2021 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 30 traits from 58 records in 17 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): partial_resprouting (1); resprouts (1) [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): 3.5 mm (2-5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; 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): 453.75 mm2 (453.75-453.75 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 275 mm (150-400 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]
leaf_width (numerical): 2.75 mm (1-4.5 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Munroe_2019; Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (1); herb (1); tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: Simpson_2021; 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 (2) [sources: Draper_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (2) [sources: Draper_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersers (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyyyyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): root_crown (1) [sources: Simpson_2021]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 2.51 mg (0.73-4.3 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 3.06 mm (2-5 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019; GrassBase_2014]
seed_width (numerical): 1.12 mm (1.12-1.12 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_shape (categorical): fusiform (1) [sources: ANBG_2019]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.78 m (0.3-1.2 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	15	16	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
GrassBase_2014	4	8	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.
Kew_2019_6	1	5	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
ANBG_2019	4	4	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
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.
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	2	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Kew_2019_1	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.
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	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm.
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.
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.