Melichrus procumbens

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Family Ericaceae

Taxonomy: Melichrus procumbens (Cav.) Druce

Synonyms: 6 (APC 2026-07-30)

Ardisia procumbens (Cav.) C.F.Gaertn. (nomenclatural synonym)
Melichrus rotatus R.Br. (taxonomic synonym)
Styphelia procumbens (Cav.) Pers. (nomenclatural synonym)
Styphelia rotata F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
Ventenatia procumbens Cav. (nomenclatural synonym)
Vintenatia procumbens Cav. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Clarke_2009 (2), Clarke_2015 (3), Collette_2021 (1), Kubiak_2009 (2), NHNSW_2014_2 (5), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (11), NSWFRD_2014 (7), Pickup_2021 (5), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19), Yang_2023 (2). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 42 traits from 68 records in 14 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); partial_resprouting (1); resprouts (3) [sources: Clarke_2015; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; Yang_2023]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (2); post_fire_recruitment_absent (1) [sources: Clarke_2015; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): green (1); pink (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 3 mm (2-4 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): drupe (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): green (1); red (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 19.5 mm (11-28 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 2.6 mm (1.2-4 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_arrangement (categorical): crowded (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (6) [sources: Clarke_2009; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (1); mat-forming (1); prostrate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; White_2020]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): endozoochory (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnyyynnn (2); nnnnnyyyynnn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (3) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; White_2020]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): morphophysiological_dormancy (1) [sources: Collette_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_buds (2); basal_stem_buds (2); underground_buds (1) [sources: Clarke_2009; Clarke_2015; NSWFRD_2014; Yang_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.2 m (0.2-0.2 m) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): sharp_pointed_defence (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	19	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	8	11	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/.
NSWFRD_2014	7	7	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.
NHNSW_2014_2	5	5	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Pickup_2021	5	5	M. Pickup and T. McDonald. Bushfire impacts — A national model for assessing local landscape restoration priorities. Project Phoenix Report. Greening Australia, 2021. url: https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.02R2.pdf.
NHNSW_2022	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.. 2022. url: https://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.
Clarke_2015	3	3	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.
Clarke_2009	2	2	P. J. Clarke, K. J. E. Knox, M. L. Campbell, and L. M. Copeland. “Post-fire recovery of woody plants in the New England Tableland Bioregion”. Cunninghamia 11 (2009), pp. 221-239. doi: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/4907.
Kubiak_2009	1	2	P. J. Kubiak. “Fire responses of bushland plants after the January 1994 wildfires in northern Sydney”. Cunninghamia 11.1 (2009), pp. 131-165.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Yang_2023	2	2	S. Yang. “Unpublished data: Fire response traits scored from national and state floras and the taxonomic literature, University of New South Wales”. 2023.
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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.