Elytrophorus spicatus

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Elytrophorus spicatus (Willd.) A.Camus

Synonyms: 7 (APC 2026-07-30)

Dactylis spicata Willd. (nomenclatural synonym)
Dactylis spicatus Lazarides (nomenclatural synonym)
Echinalysium articulatum (P.Beauv.) Trin. (taxonomic synonym)
Elythrophorus articulatus F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Elytrophorus articulatus P.Beauv. (taxonomic synonym)
Sesleria spicata (Willd.) Spreng. (nomenclatural synonym)
Sessleria spicata Spreng. (nomenclatural synonym)

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: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (8), Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), GrassBase_2014 (8), Kew_2019_1 (4), Kew_2019_6 (4), Metcalfe_2020_2 (16), NHNSW_2014 (1), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (4), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (10), Nano_2011 (2), Osborne_2014 (1), RBGV_2022 (3), RBGV_2023 (8), SAH_2014 (1), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (4), Simpson_2021 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wenk_2023_2 (1), White_2020 (21), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (7). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 49 traits from 134 records in 29 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 (3) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): green (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 0.75 mm (0.5-0.9 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (8) [sources: ABRS_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006; WAH_2023_2]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 360 mm2 (360-360 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 181 mm (30-280 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; GrassBase_2014; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2014]
leaf_width (numerical): 3.32 mm (0.5-6 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (2) [sources: NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (5) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Osborne_2014; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (7); graminoid_not_tussock (1); herb (6); tussock (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; Metcalfe_2020_2; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_form (categorical): geophyte (1); therophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): annual (8); short_lived_perennial (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Simpson_2021; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (7) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1); self (1); wind (2) [sources: Draper_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1); epizoochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023; Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); mammals (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnynnnnnnnn (1); nnnyyyynnnnn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; White_2020]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.12 mg (0.02-0.39 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 0.7 mm (0.5-0.9 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.43 m (0.05-0.8 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	21	21	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
Metcalfe_2020_2	15	16	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
NTH_2023	8	10	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/.
ABRS_2023	6	8	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
GrassBase_2014	4	8	W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
RBGV_2023	7	8	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	5	7	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
Kew_2019_1	1	4	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_6	1	4	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_2023	4	4	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/.
SAH_2023	3	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.
ABRS_2022	3	3	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
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.
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/.
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/.
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_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/.
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).
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.
NHNSW_2014	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm.
Osborne_2014	1	1	C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
SAH_2014	1	1	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.
Simpson_2021	1	1	K. J. Simpson, E. C. Jardine, S. Archibald, E. J. Forrestel, C. E. R. Lehmann, G. H. Thomas, and C. P. Osborne. “Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders”. New Phytologist 230 (2021), pp. 832-844. doi: 10.1111/nph.17069.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.
Wenk_2023_2	1	1	E. Wenk and D. Coleman. “Unpublished: Rain and flood-related flowering cues for Australia's flora, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2023.