Mesomelaena tetragona

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Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Mesomelaena tetragona (R.Br.) Benth.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)

Chaetospora tetragona R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)
Mesomelaena bicapitata Steud. (taxonomic synonym)
Schoenus tetragonus (R.Br.) Poir. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (12), Burrows_2008_2 (4), Burrows_2020 (4), Detombeur_2025 (56), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Tsakalos_2020 (17), Tsakalos_2022 (3), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wheeler_2002 (10), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (8), vanderMoezel_1987 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 52 traits from 131 records in 16 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 (4) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Tsakalos_2020; vanderMoezel_1987]
fire_time_from_fire_to_flowering (numerical): 22 mo (22-22 mo) [sources: Burrows_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): black (1); red_brown (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 5.5 mm (5-6 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 2.75 mm (2.5-3 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_height (numerical): 2.75 mm (2.5-3 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): nut (1); nutlet (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Tsakalos_2020]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): yellow (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 375 mm (200-550 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Wheeler_2002]
leaf_width (numerical): 2 mm (2-2 mm) [sources: Wheeler_2002]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 294.99 g/m2 (281.56-316.36 g/m2) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.4 g/g (0.37-0.46 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_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
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): graminoid (3); herb (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; Wheeler_2002]
life_history (categorical): perennial (7) [sources: ABRS_2022; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023; Wheeler_2002]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyyyyyyn (1); yyyyyyyyyyyy (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020; WAH_1998]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2022]
clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): rhizome (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2022]
bud_bank_location (categorical): bud-bearing_root (2); rhizome_non_woody (1) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Tsakalos_2022]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 7.01 mg/g (6.29-8.35 mg/g) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 0.19 mg/g (0.15-0.23 mg/g) [sources: Detombeur_2025]
leaf_delta13C (numerical): -29.44 {delta}[ppth] (-30.17--27.41 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Detombeur_2025]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.78 m (0.3-1 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.
ABRS_2023	8	12	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
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.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	7	8	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
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.
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.
Tsakalos_2022	3	3	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_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	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.
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.
vanderMoezel_1987	1	1	P. G. van der Moezel, W. A. Loneragan, and D. T. Bell. “Northern Sandplain Kwongan - regeneration following fire, juvenile period and flowering phenology”. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 69.4 (1987), pp. 123-132.