Gahnia aspera

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Gahnia aspera (R.Br.) Spreng.

Synonyms: 9 (APC 2026-07-30)

Cladium asperum (R.Br.) F.Muell. (nomenclatural synonym)
Gahnia aspera (R.Br.) Spreng. f. aspera (nomenclatural synonym)
Gahnia aspera (R.Br.) Spreng. var. aspera (nomenclatural synonym)
Gahnia aspera f. distans Domin (taxonomic synonym)
Gahnia aspera var. angustinus Kük. (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
Gahnia boninsimae Maxim. (taxonomic synonym)
Hexalepis scabrifolia Boeckeler (taxonomic synonym)
Lampocarya aspera R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)
Mariscus aspera (R.Br.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (6), ATRP_2020 (2), Benwell_2024 (4), Duncan_1998 (11), Fonseca_2000 (4), Kew_2019_1 (3), Kew_2019_5 (1), Leishman_1993 (1), Leishman_1995 (6), Metcalfe_2020_1 (3), NHNSW_2014_2 (4), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (9), NSWFRD_2014 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (18), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (10). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 64 traits from 94 records in 19 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); resprouts (2) [sources: Benwell_2024; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Benwell_2024]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): red_brown (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1); hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 5.25 mm (4.5-6 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 3.25 mm (2.5-4 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 3.25 mm (2.5-4 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); red (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 1941.3 mm2 (375-4267 mm2) [sources: Duncan_1998; Fonseca_2000; Leishman_1995]
leaf_width (numerical): 3.3 mm (3.3-3.3 mm) [sources: Fonseca_2000]
leaf_dry_mass (numerical): 346.75 mg (340-353.5 mg) [sources: Duncan_1998; Fonseca_2000]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 697.82 g/m2 (299.4-909.09 g/m2) [sources: Duncan_1998; Fonseca_2000; Leishman_1995]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 1.16 g/g (1.16-1.16 g/g) [sources: Duncan_1998]
leaf_shape (categorical): linear (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (3) [sources: Duncan_1998; Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (4); tussock (1) [sources: ATRP_2020; Leishman_1995; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1); endozoochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Kew_2019_5; Leishman_1995; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnyyyn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (1) [sources: Benwell_2024]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): rhizome (1) [sources: ATRP_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 26.13 mg (7.39-40.04 mg) [sources: ANBG_2019; Kew_2019_1; Leishman_1993; Leishman_1995]
seed_length (numerical): 8.23 mm (8.23-8.23 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_width (numerical): 3.37 mm (3.37-3.37 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_shape (categorical): ovoid (1) [sources: ANBG_2019]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.4 m (0.4-0.4 m) [sources: Leishman_1995]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	18	18	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
Duncan_1998	11	11	D. H. Duncan. “Unpublished data: Structural basis of variation in leaf mass per area in three plant clades, Macquarie University”. 1998.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	9	10	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
NHNSW_2023	6	9	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/.
ANBG_2019	6	6	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
Leishman_1995	6	6	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.
Benwell_2024	4	4	A. Benwell. “Fire responses of flora in a sclerophyll-rainforest vegetation complex in the Nightcap Range, North Coast, New South Wales”. Australian Journal of Botany 72.1 (2024). Ed. by D. Williams. ISSN: 1444-9862. doi: 10.1071/bt23049.
Fonseca_2000	4	4	C. R. Fonseca, J. M. Overton, B. Collins, and M. Westoby. “Shifts in trait-combinations along rainfall and phosphorus gradients”. Journal of Ecology 88 (2000), pp. 964-977. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00506.x.
NHNSW_2014_2	4	4	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.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.
Kew_2019_1	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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/.
ATRP_2020	2	2	F. 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.
NSWFRD_2014	2	2	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.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_5	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed dispersal data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Leishman_1993	1	1	M. Leishman. “Unpublished data: Seed mass data for Sydney species, Macquarie University”. 1990.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.