Muehlenbeckia axillaris

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Polygonaceae

Taxonomy: Muehlenbeckia axillaris (Hook.f.) Endl.

Synonyms: 9 (APC 2026-07-30)

Muehlenbeckia parvifolia Meisn. (taxonomic synonym)
Muehlenbeckia parvifolia var. caespitosa F.Muell. ex Meisn. (taxonomic synonym)
Muehlenbeckia parvifolia var. expansa F.Muell. ex Meisn. (taxonomic synonym)
Muhlenbeckia axillaris Endl. (orthographic variant)
Muhlenbeckia parvifolia Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
Polygonum axillare Hook.f. (nomenclatural synonym)
Polygonum depressum Meisn. (taxonomic synonym)
Polygonum microphyllum Meisn. (taxonomic synonym)
Pseudanthus tasmanicus Rodway (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): NSW, Vic, Tas

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Jordan_2001 (6), Kew_2019_1 (2), McGlone_2015 (7), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (12), NSWFRD_2014 (2), Pickup_2021 (3), RBGV_2022 (3), RBGV_2023 (12), Sjostrom_2006 (4), TMAG_2009 (11), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (20). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 46 traits from 91 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): fire_killed (2); partial_resprouting (1) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; White_2020]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Pickup_2021]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): dioecious (3) [sources: Jordan_2001; RBGV_2022; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 2.5 mm (2-3 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): achene (1); nut (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Jordan_2001; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): black (2); brown (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 7.75 mm (3-10 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; TMAG_2009]
leaf_width (numerical): 4.83 mm (2-8 mm) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; TMAG_2009]
petiole_length (numerical): 0.25 cm (0.1-0.4 cm) [sources: RBGV_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): narrowly_ovate (1); orbicular (3); widely_elliptical (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; TMAG_2009]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): acute (1); attenuate (1); cordate (1); truncate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_margin_posture (categorical): flat (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (4) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; TMAG_2009]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (7); subshrub (2) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; Pickup_2021; RBGV_2022; TMAG_2009; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: Jordan_2001; NHNSW_2022; TMAG_2009; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): mat-forming (2); prostrate (3); sprawling (1) [sources: McGlone_2015; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; White_2020]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: TMAG_2009]
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): yynnnnnnnnny (1); yyyynnnnnnny (1) [sources: TMAG_2009; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): transient (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 3.25 mg (3.02-3.47 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 3.5 mm (3.5-3.5 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001]
seed_width (numerical): 3 mm (3-3 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.05 m (0.05-0.05 m) [sources: McGlone_2015]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	20	20	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	10	12	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/.
RBGV_2023	9	12	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
TMAG_2009	9	11	Tasmanian Herbarium. Flora of Tasmania Online. 2009. url: http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/floratasmania.
McGlone_2015	7	7	M. S. McGlone, S. J. Richardson, G. J. Jordan, and G. L. Perry. “Is there a `suboptimal' woody species height? A response to Scheffer et al.”. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 30.1 (2015), pp. 4-5. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.09.007.
Jordan_2001	6	6	G. J. Jordan. “An investigation of long-distance dispersal based on species native to both Tasmania and New Zealand”. Australian Journal of Botany 49.3 (2001), pp. 333-340. doi: 10.1071/bt00024.
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.
Pickup_2021	3	3	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.
RBGV_2022	3	3	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Kew_2019_1	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_2014_2	2	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.