Melaleuca systena

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Family Myrtaceae

Taxonomy: Melaleuca systena Craven

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)

Melaleuca acerosa Schauer (nomenclatural synonym)
Melaleuca sp. Yanchep (G.J.Keighery 11242) WA Herbarium (taxonomic synonym)
Myrtoleucodendron acerosum (Schauer) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (4), Clarke_2015 (2), Collette_2021 (1), Detombeur_2021 (117), Enright_2014 (19), Guilherme_Pereira_2018 (18), Kew_2019_1 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Sweedman_2006 (4), Tsakalos_2020 (17), Tsakalos_2022 (2), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wheeler_2002 (10), Wilson_2004 (2). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 47 traits from 211 records in 18 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 (11) [sources: Clarke_2015; Enright_2014; Tsakalos_2020]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (10) [sources: Clarke_2015; Enright_2014]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

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

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 14.5 mm (4-25 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_width (numerical): 0.55 mm (0.3-0.8 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (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 (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (3) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; Wheeler_2002]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023; Wheeler_2002]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2); spreading (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): yyynnnnyyyyy (1); yyyynnnyyyyy (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_1998]
seedbank_location (categorical): canopy_seedbank (1) [sources: Enright_2014]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): non_dormant (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2022]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2022]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 1.49 mg/g (0.26-4.71 mg/g) [sources: Detombeur_2021; Guilherme_Pereira_2018]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.11 mg (1.11-1.11 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 0.38 mm (0.38-0.38 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_width (numerical): 0.22 mm (0.22-0.22 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_shape (categorical): sectoroid (1) [sources: ANBG_2019]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.38 m (0.5-2 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_2021	9	117	F. de Tombeur, E. Laliberte, H. Lambers, M. Faucon, G. Zemunik, B. L. Turner, J. Cornelis, and G. Mahy. “A shift from phenol to silica-based leaf defenses during long-term soil and ecosystem development”. Ecology Letters 24.5 (2021), pp. 984-995. doi: 10.1111/ele.13713.
Enright_2014	3	19	N. J. Enright, J. B. Fontaine, B. B. Lamont, B. P. Miller, and V. C. Westcott. “Resistance and resilience to changing climate and fire regime depend on plant functional traits”. Journal of Ecology 102 (2014), pp. 1572-1581. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12306.
Guilherme_Pereira_2018	3	18	C. G. Pereira, P. L. Clode, R. S. Oliveira, and H. Lambers. “Eudicots from severely phosphorus-impoverished environments preferentially allocate phosphorus to their mesophyll”. New Phytologist 218.3 (2018), pp. 959-973. doi: 10.1111/nph.15043.
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	8	10	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.
ANBG_2019	4	4	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
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.
Sweedman_2006	2	4	L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
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/.
Clarke_2015	2	2	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.
Tsakalos_2022	2	2	J. L. Tsakalos, G. Ottaviani, S. Chelli, A. Rea, S. Elder, M. P. Dobrowolski, and L. Mucina. “Plant clonality in a soil-impoverished open ecosystem: insights from southwest Australian shrublands”. Annals of Botany 130.7 (2022), pp. 981-990. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcac131.
WAH_2023_2	1	2	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.
Wilson_2004	1	2	B. A. Wilson, J. Kuehs, L. E. Valentine, T. Sonneman, and K. M. Wolfe. “Guidelines for ecological burning regimes in Mediterranean ecosystems: a case study in Banksia woodlands in Western Australia”. Pacific Conservation Biology 20.1 (2014), p. 57. doi: 10.1071/pc140057.
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.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.