AusTraits

Cyperus polystachyos

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Cyperus polystachyos Rottb.

Synonyms: 9 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Cyperus polystachyos Rottb. var. polystachyos (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Cyperus polystachyos var. laxiflorus Benth. (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
  • Cyperus polystachyos var. miser Kük. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Cyperus polystachyus Benth. (orthographic variant)
  • Cyperus polystachyus var. laxiflora Benth. (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
  • Pycreus polystachyos (Rottb.) P.Beauv. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Pycreus polystachyos (Rottb.) P.Beauv. var. polystachyos (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Pycreus polystachyos var. laxiflorus (Benth.) C.B.Clarke (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
  • Pycreus polystachyos var. typicus Domin (nomenclatural synonym)
Misapplied names: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Cyperus aquatilis R.Br. (misapplied)
  • Cyperus congestus Vahl (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), CoI, NT, Qld, NSW, LHI (naturalised), NI (naturalised), Vic

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (2), Kew_2019_1 (12), Kew_2019_6 (15), Kubiak_2009 (2), Metcalfe_2020_1 (9), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (9), NSWFRD_2014 (4), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (6), Pickup_2021 (3), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (9), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_1 (3), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (57). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 40 traits from 158 records in 21 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 (5); resprouts (1) [sources: Kubiak_2009; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; White_2020]
  • post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Pickup_2021]
flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): red_brown (1); white_cream (1); yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 1.13 mm (1-1.2 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 0.47 mm (0.4-0.5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): nut (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): black (2); brown (3); grey (1); red (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_width (numerical): 2.5 mm (2-3 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (6); herb (6); tussock (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; NTH_2022; Pickup_2021; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (5); perennial (7) [sources: ATRP_2020; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): rhizomatous (3); tufted (1) [sources: ATRP_2020; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): hydrochory (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • dispersers (categorical): water (3) [sources: White_2020]
  • flowering_time (categorical): yynnnnnnyyyy (4) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; White_2020]
  • seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (1) [sources: NSWFRD_2014]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (4) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (6) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
  • storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; WAH_2023_2]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.09 mg (0.05-0.19 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
White_20201957M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
Kew_2019_6115Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_1112Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Metcalfe_2020_139D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
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/.
RBGV_202369VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NTH_202366D. 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/.
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/.
NSWFRD_201444B. 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_202244VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.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/.
NTH_202233D. 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/.
Pickup_202133M. Pickup and T. McDonald. Bushfire impacts — A national model for assessing local landscape restoration priorities. Project Phoenix Report. Greening Australia, 2021. url: https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.02R2.pdf.
WAH_2022_133Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_223Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
ATRP_202022F. 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.
Kubiak_200922P. J. Kubiak. “Fire responses of bushland plants after the January 1994 wildfires in northern Sydney”. Cunninghamia 11.1 (2009), pp. 131-165.
NHNSW_2014_222Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.