Desmodium rhytidophyllum

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Desmodium rhytidophyllum F.Muell. ex Benth.

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Desmodium sp. D57856 [Russ 8483 & Brock DNA] (taxonomic synonym)
Meibomia rhytidophylla (F.Muell. ex Benth.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): NT, Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: BRAIN_2007 (2), Clarke_2009 (4), Clarke_2015 (3), Collette_2021 (1), Hughes_1992 (5), Kew_2019_1 (2), Kubiak_2009 (3), Leishman_1993 (1), Leishman_1995 (5), NHNSW_2014_2 (10), NHNSW_2016 (1), NSWFRD_2014 (9), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (16), Pickup_2021 (5), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19), Wright_2000 (5). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 58 traits from 102 records in 20 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); partial_resprouting (1); resprouts (3) [sources: Clarke_2015; Kubiak_2009; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (2) [sources: Clarke_2015; Pickup_2021]
fire_time_from_fire_to_flowering (numerical): 3.6 mo (3.6-3.6 mo) [sources: NSWFRD_2014]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); pink (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 25 mm (15-35 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 3.5 mm (3.5-3.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 3405.5 mm2 (640-6171 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1995; NHNSW_2016]
leaf_length (numerical): 41.25 mm (12-70 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 23.75 mm (8-35 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); rhomboidal (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): rounded (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): climber (2); herb (6) [sources: Clarke_2009; Hughes_1992; Leishman_1995; NSWFRD_2014; NTH_2022; Pickup_2021; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (2) [sources: NTH_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (2) [sources: NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
plant_climbing_mechanism (categorical): twining (1) [sources: Clarke_2009]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): climbing (1); prostrate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2022; White_2020]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): endozoochory (2); epizoochory (3) [sources: BRAIN_2007; Hughes_1992; Leishman_1995; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): mammals (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnnnn (1); yynnnnnnnnny (1); yyyyyyyyyyyy (2) [sources: Hughes_1992; NHNSW_2014_2; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021]
serotiny (categorical): not_serotinous (1) [sources: Hughes_1992]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (3) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; White_2020]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): physical_dormancy (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_buds (1); basal_stem_buds (3) [sources: Clarke_2009; Clarke_2015; NSWFRD_2014]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.91 mg (1.8-2.12 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Leishman_1993; Leishman_1995]
seed_length (numerical): 3.5 mm (3.5-3.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 2.5 mm (2.5-2.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
seed_shape (categorical): reniform (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.12 m (0.05-0.2 m) [sources: Hughes_1992; Leishman_1995]
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.
NTH_2023	13	16	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/.
NHNSW_2014_2	8	10	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NSWFRD_2014	9	9	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.
Hughes_1992	5	5	L. Hughes and B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Traits data for 643 species, Macquarie University”. 1992.
Leishman_1995	5	5	M. R. Leishman, M. Westoby, and E. Jurado. “Correlates of seed size variation: A comparison among five temperate floras”. Journal of Ecology 83 (1995), pp. 517-529. doi: 10.2307/2261604.
Pickup_2021	5	5	M. 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.
Wright_2000	5	5	I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.
Clarke_2009	3	4	P. J. Clarke, K. J. E. Knox, M. L. Campbell, and L. M. Copeland. “Post-fire recovery of woody plants in the New England Tableland Bioregion”. Cunninghamia 11 (2009), pp. 221-239. doi: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/4907.
NTH_2022	4	4	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.
Clarke_2015	3	3	P. J. Clarke, M. J. Lawes, B. P. Murphy, J. Russell-Smith, C. E. Nano, R. Bradstock, N. J. Enright, J. B. Fontaine, C. R. Gosper, I. Radford, J. J. Midgley, and R. M. Gunton. “A synthesis of postfire recovery traits of woody plants in Australian ecosystems”. Science of The Total Environment 534 (2015), pp. 31-42. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.04.002.
Kubiak_2009	3	3	P. J. Kubiak. “Fire responses of bushland plants after the January 1994 wildfires in northern Sydney”. Cunninghamia 11.1 (2009), pp. 131-165.
BRAIN_2007	1	2	Brisbane Rainforest Action & Information Network. Trait measurements for Australian rainforest species. 2016. url: http://www.brisrain.org.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/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Collette_2021	1	1	J. C. Collette and M. K. J. Ooi. “Distribution of seed dormancy classes across a fire-prone continent: effects of rainfall seasonality and temperature”. Annals of Botany 127.5 (2021), pp. 613-620. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaa203.
Leishman_1993	1	1	M. Leishman. “Unpublished data: Seed mass data for Sydney species, Macquarie University”. 1990.
NHNSW_2016	1	1	National Herbarium of NSW. Trait measurements for NSW rainforest species from PLantNET. 2016. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.