Lepidosperma leptostachyum

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Lepidosperma leptostachyum Benth.

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Lepidosperma leptostachyum Benth. var. leptostachyum (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Lepidosperma canescens Boeckeler (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Burrows_2008_2 (4), Burrows_2020 (4), Detombeur_2025 (56), Harvey_2017 (6), Munroe_2019 (1), Pekin_2011 (5), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Standish_2019 (7), Tsakalos_2020 (17), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wheeler_2002 (8). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 45 traits from 123 records in 15 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 (6) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Harvey_2017; Pekin_2011; Standish_2019; Tsakalos_2020]
fire_time_from_fire_to_flowering (numerical): 24 mo (24-24 mo) [sources: Burrows_2020]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): nut (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Tsakalos_2020]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_width (numerical): 1.5 mm (1-2 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 396.84 g/m2 (377.03-434.92 g/m2) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.46 g/g (0.44-0.47 g/g) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_shape (categorical): linear (1) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (2) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; Wheeler_2002]
leaf_glaucousness (categorical): not_glaucous (2) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
leaf_hairs_adult_leaves (categorical): glabrous (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Munroe_2019; Tsakalos_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (2) [sources: Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; Wheeler_2002]
life_history (categorical): perennial (8) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Pekin_2011; Standish_2019; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023; Wheeler_2002]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1); rhizomatous (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: Pekin_2011; Standish_2019]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1); proteoid_root (1) [sources: Pekin_2011; Standish_2019]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnyyynnnnnn (1); nyyynnnnnnnn (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_1998]
seedbank_location (categorical): canopy_seedbank_absent (1); soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Harvey_2017; Standish_2019]
serotiny (categorical): not_serotinous (1) [sources: Harvey_2017]
storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (1) [sources: WAH_2023_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): bud-bearing_root (2); fleshy_underground_organ (1) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Pekin_2011]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 7.29 mg/g (5.43-8.88 mg/g) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 0.18 mg/g (0.15-0.2 mg/g) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_delta13C (numerical): -29.27 {delta}[ppth] (-30.32--28.81 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Detombeur_2025]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.71 mg (0.71-0.71 mg) [sources: Standish_2019]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.68 m (0.1-1 m) [sources: WAH_2023_2; Wheeler_2002]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Detombeur_2025	12	56	F. D. Tombeur, L. Plouzeau, J. Shaw, M. J. Hodson, K. Ranathunge, J. Kotula, P. E. Hayes, M. Tremblay, S. Coq, M. Stein, R. Nakamura, I. J. Wright, H. Lambers, C. Violle, and P. L. Clode. “Anatomical and Trait Analyses Reveal a Silicon-Carbon Trade-Off in the Epidermis of Sedges”. Plant, Cell & Environment 48.3 (2024), pp. 2396-2410. ISSN: 1365-3040. doi: 10.1111/pce.15307.
Tsakalos_2020	16	17	J. L. Tsakalos, M. Renton, F. Riviera, E. J. Veneklaas, M. P. Dobrowolski, and L. Mucina. “Trait-based formal definition of plant functional types and functional communities in the multi-species and multi-traits context”. Ecological Complexity 40 (2019), p. 100787. doi: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2019.100787.
Wheeler_2002	7	8	J. R. Wheeler, N. G. Marchant, and M. Lewington. Flora of the south west: Bunbury, Augusta, Denmark. Australian Biological Resources Study ; University of Western Australia Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780642568168.
Standish_2019	7	7	R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Harvey_2017	6	6	J. M. Harvey, A. J. M. Hopkins, M. A. Langley, C. R. Gosper, M. R. Williams, and C. J. Yates. “Long-term studies of post-fire reproduction in an Australian shrubland and woodland”. Australian Journal of Botany 65.4 (2017), p. 339. doi: 10.1071/bt17011.
Pekin_2011	5	5	B. K. Pekin, R. S. Wittkuhn, M. M. Boer, C. Macfarlane, and P. F. Grierson. “Plant functional traits along environmental gradients in seasonally dry and fire-prone ecosystem”. Journal of Vegetation Science 22 (2011), pp. 1009-1020. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2011.01323.x.
Burrows_2008_2	4	4	N. D. Burrows, G. Wardell-Johnson, and B. Ward. “Post-fire juvenile period of plants in south-west Australia forests and implications for fire management”. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 91 (2008), pp. 163-174. ISSN: 0035922X. url: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19156 (visited on 03/27/2025).
Burrows_2020	4	4	N. Burrows. Data from 'Plant Ecological Attributes' theme, NatureMap, DBCA, WA. 2020.
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/.
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/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Munroe_2019	1	1	S. E. M. Munroe, F. A. McInerney, J. Andrae, N. Welti, G. R. Guerin, E. Leitch, T. Hall, S. Szarvas, R. Atkins, S. Caddy-Retalic, and B. Sparrow. “The Photosynthetic Pathways of Plant Species Surveyed in Australia's National Terrestrial Monitoring Network”. Scientific Data 8 (2021), p. 97. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00877-z.
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.