AusTraits

Cyperus alterniflorus

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Cyperus alterniflorus R.Br.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Cyperus alternifolius Steud. (orthographic variant)
  • Cyperus pictus Steud. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Mariscus alterniflorus (R.Br.) C.B.Clarke (nomenclatural synonym)
Misapplied names: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Cyperus fulvus R.Br. (pro parte misapplied)
  • Cyperus gunnii Hook.f. (pro parte misapplied)
  • Cyperus rutilans (C.B.Clarke) Maiden & Betche (pro parte misapplied)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_6 (2), Metcalfe_2020_1 (19), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (4), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (9), SAH_2014 (1), SAH_2022 (4), SAH_2023 (6), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_2021 (10). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 41 traits from 79 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.

flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): red_brown (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 1.95 mm (1.6-2.3 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 0.55 mm (0.5-0.7 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 0.6 mm (0.5-0.7 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): nut (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (2); red (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_width (numerical): 12 mm (12-12 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; SAH_2014]
  • leaf_base_shape (categorical): sheathing (1) [sources: SAH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2014_2]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Munroe_2019]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (2); tussock (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_form (categorical): geophyte (1); hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): caespitose (1); erect (1); rhizomatous (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1); wind (2) [sources: Draper_2023; Metcalfe_2020_1]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1); hydrochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
  • dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); birds (1); water (1); wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnyyyyynn (1); yynnnnnnyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_1998]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
  • clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): belowground_clonal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
  • storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.25 mg (0.25-0.25 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Metcalfe_2020_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 0.7 mm (0.7-0.7 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 1.1 m (0.3-2 m) [sources: SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
Metcalfe_2020_11719D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
eFLOWER_20211010J. Schönenberger, M. Balthazar, A. L. Martinez, B. Albert, C. Prieu, S. Magallon, and H. Sauquet. “Phylogenetic analysis of fossil flowers using an angiosperm-wide data set: proof-of-concept and challenges ahead”. American Journal of Botany 107.10 (2020), pp. 1433-1448. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1538.
NHNSW_202369N. 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/.
SAH_202356S. 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/.
NHNSW_2014_244Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202244N. 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_202244S. 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/.
Sjostrom_200644A. 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_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Draper_202333J. 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_2023_223Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Kew_2019_612Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_111Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Munroe_201911S. 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.
SAH_201411J. P. Jessop and H. R. Toelken. Flora of South Australia, 4th edition, 4 vols. Electronic version curated by J. Kellermann, State Herbarium of South Australia.. Government Printer, Adelaide, 1986.
WAH_199811Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.