Cyperus aquatilis

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Cyperus aquatilis R.Br.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cyperus inundatus R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)
Cyperus superatus C.B.Clarke (taxonomic synonym)
Cyperus trinervis var. aquatilis (R.Br.) Kük. (nomenclatural synonym)
Cyperus trinervis var. superatus (C.B.Clarke) Kük. (taxonomic synonym)

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

Cyperus trinervis R.Br. (misapplied)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (2), Kew_2019_1 (1), Metcalfe_2020_1 (19), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (8), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (6), Schmidt_2003 (15), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 45 traits from 91 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 (1) [sources: White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): red_brown (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 0.67 mm (0.5-0.8 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 0.5 mm (0.5-0.5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 0.5 mm (0.5-0.5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; NTH_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); white (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_width (numerical): 2 mm (1-3 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.19 g/g (0.19-0.19 g/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Schmidt_2003; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (5); herb (4); tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_form (categorical): therophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
life_history (categorical): annual (6) [sources: ATRP_2020; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): tufted (1) [sources: ATRP_2020]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: Schmidt_2003; White_2020]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1); wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): hydrochory (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): water (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnyyyyynnnn (1); yynnnnnnyyyy (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_1998; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 25 mg/g (25-25 mg/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
leaf_delta13C (numerical): -27.68 {delta}[ppth] (-27.68--27.68 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Schmidt_2003]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.06 mg (0.06-0.07 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Metcalfe_2020_1]
seed_length (numerical): 0.5 mm (0.5-0.5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.27 m (0.04-0.5 m) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_1	16	19	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
White_2020	19	19	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
Schmidt_2003	11	15	S. Schmidt and G. R. Stewart. “d15N values of tropical savanna and monsoon forest species reflect root specialisations and soil nitrogen status”. Oecologia 134 (2003), pp. 569-577. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-1150-y.
NHNSW_2023	6	8	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	5	6	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/.
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.
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/.
NTH_2022	3	3	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/.
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/.
ATRP_2020	2	2	F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
NHNSW_2014_2	2	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.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.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.