Cyperus gracilis

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Cyperus gracilis R.Br.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cyperus gracilis R.Br. f. gracilis (nomenclatural synonym)
Cyperus gracilis R.Br. var. gracilis (nomenclatural synonym)
Cyperus gracilis f. viviparus Domin (doubtful taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld, NSW, NI (naturalised), Vic

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (3), Benwell_2024 (4), Kew_2019_1 (2), Metcalfe_2020_1 (15), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (6), NSWFRD_2014 (3), RBGV_2022 (3), RBGV_2023 (6), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Soliveres_2012 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 44 traits from 75 records in 15 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 (2); resprouts (1) [sources: Benwell_2024; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Benwell_2024]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 1.2 mm (1.2-1.2 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 0.8 mm (0.8-0.8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 0.8 mm (0.8-0.8 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_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): black (2); brown (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_width (numerical): 1 mm (1-1 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
leaf_shape (categorical): filiform (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (4); tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; RBGV_2022; Soliveres_2012; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: ATRP_2020; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): tufted (1) [sources: ATRP_2020]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1); wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1); hydrochory (1) [sources: Soliveres_2012; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): water (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): yynnnnnnyyyy (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; White_2020]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (1) [sources: Benwell_2024]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): rhizome (1) [sources: ATRP_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.33 mg (0.29-0.37 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 0.8 mm (0.8-0.8 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1 m (1-1 m) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
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.
Metcalfe_2020_1	15	15	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
NHNSW_2023	6	6	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	6	6	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Benwell_2024	4	4	A. Benwell. “Fire responses of flora in a sclerophyll-rainforest vegetation complex in the Nightcap Range, North Coast, New South Wales”. Australian Journal of Botany 72.1 (2024). Ed. by D. Williams. ISSN: 1444-9862. doi: 10.1071/bt23049.
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.
ATRP_2020	3	3	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_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/.
NSWFRD_2014	3	3	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.
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/.
Kew_2019_1	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_2014_2	2	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Soliveres_2012	2	2	S. Soliveres, D. J. Eldridge, F. Hemmings, and F. T. Maestre. “Nurse plant effects on plant species richness in drylands: The role of grazing, rainfall and species specificity”. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 14 (2012), pp. 402-410. doi: 10.1016/j.ppees.2012.09.003.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.