Eleocharis spiralis

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Eleocharis spiralis (Rottb.) Roem. & Schult.

Synonyms: 8 (APC 2026-07-30)

Eleocharis compacta R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)
Heleocharis compacta F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
Heleocharis spiralis Roem. & Schult. (orthographic variant)
Limnochloa spiralis (Rottb.) Nees (nomenclatural synonym)
Scirpus compacta Poir. (taxonomic synonym)
Scirpus compactus Poir. (taxonomic synonym)
Scirpus compactus Spreng. (taxonomic synonym)
Scirpus spiralis Rottb. (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Eleocharis austro-caledonica Vieill. (misapplied)
Eleocharis variegata (Poir.) C.Presl (pro parte misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), Metcalfe_2020_1 (2), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (8), Nano_2011 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (11). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 26 traits from 43 records in 12 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): resprouts (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): white_cream (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 1.55 mm (1.5-1.6 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 1.2 mm (1.1-1.3 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (2) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): rhizomatous (1); stoloniferous (1) [sources: WAH_2022_2]
flowering_time (categorical): nnynnnnnnnnn (1) [sources: WAH_1998]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1]
storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (2) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.65 m (0.4-0.8 m) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	9	11	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
NTH_2023	6	8	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.
WAH_2022_2	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.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_2023_2	2	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Crowley_2007	2	2	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Metcalfe_2020_1	2	2	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
Nano_2011	2	2	C. E. M. Nano and P. J. Clarke. “How do drought and fire influence the patterns of resprouting in Australian deserts?”. Plant Ecology 212 (2011), pp. 2095-2110. doi: 10.1007/s11258-011-9988-x.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.