Cyperus rigidellus

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Cyperus rigidellus (Benth.) J.M.Black

Synonyms: 6 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cyperus gracilis var. rigidella Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Cyperus gracilis var. rigidellus Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Cyperus subpinnatus Kük. (taxonomic synonym)
Cyperus subpinnatus Kük. var. subpinnatus (taxonomic synonym)
Cyperus subpinnatus var. subrigidellus Kük. (taxonomic synonym)
Mariscus rigidellus (Benth.) C.B.Clarke (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cyperus enervis R.Br. (misapplied)
Cyperus gilesii Benth. (misapplied)
Cyperus gracilis R.Br. (pro parte misapplied)
Cyperus gracilis R.Br. (misapplied)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (1), Metcalfe_2020_1 (3), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (8), RBGV_2022 (3), RBGV_2023 (8), SAH_2014 (3), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (38). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 37 traits from 92 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.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (2) [sources: White_2020]

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): 2.25 mm (1.3-3.2 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 0.65 mm (0.5-0.8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 0.65 mm (0.5-0.8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): black (1); brown (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 250 mm (250-250 mm) [sources: SAH_2014]
leaf_width (numerical): 2 mm (2-2 mm) [sources: SAH_2014]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): sheathing (1) [sources: SAH_2023]
leaf_margin_posture (categorical): involute (1) [sources: SAH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (2) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (5); herb (4); tussock (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): annual (5); perennial (4); short_lived_perennial (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (5) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (2) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (2); insect (1); wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1); hydrochory (3); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); birds (1); water (3); wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnyyyyyyyyn (1); yynnnnnnyyyy (3) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_1998; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.03 mg (0.03-0.03 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.24 m (0.05-0.4 m) [sources: SAH_2014; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (2) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	38	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	5	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/.
RBGV_2023	5	8	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
SAH_2023	4	4	S. 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_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.
Metcalfe_2020_1	3	3	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
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/.
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/.
SAH_2014	3	3	J. 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.
SAH_2022	3	3	S. 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/.
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/.
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.