Ophiuros exaltatus

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Ophiuros exaltatus (L.) Kuntze

Synonyms: 11 (APC 2026-07-30)

Aegilops exaltata L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Mnesithea exaltata (L.) Skeels (nomenclatural synonym)
Ophiuros corymbosus (L.f.) Gaertn. var. corymbosus (taxonomic synonym)
Ophiuros corymbosus C.F.Gaertn. (taxonomic synonym)
Ophiuros megaphyllus Stapf & Haines (taxonomic synonym)
Ophiuros tongcalingii (Elmer) Henrard (taxonomic synonym)
Ophiurus corymbosa C.F.Gaertn. (taxonomic synonym)
Rottboellia corymbosa L.f. (taxonomic synonym)
Rottboellia exaltata (L.) L.f. (nomenclatural synonym)
Rottboellia tongcalingii Elmer (taxonomic synonym)
Rottbolla corymbosa L.f. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (1), GrassBase_2014 (6), Metcalfe_2020_2 (15), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014 (1), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (10), Nano_2011 (1), Osborne_2014 (1), Simpson_2021 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (7). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 30 traits from 62 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): partial_resprouting (1); resprouts (1) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); green (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1); hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006; WAH_2023_2]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 11250 mm2 (11250-11250 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 462.5 mm (100-1000 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 16 mm (4-40 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; NTH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Munroe_2019; Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (2); tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: NTH_2022; Simpson_2021; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): rhizomatous (2) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyyyyynn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (2) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 2.55 m (1-4 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	15	15	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
NTH_2023	7	10	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	5	7	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
GrassBase_2014	3	6	W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
NTH_2022	4	4	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.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.
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	3	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.
Crowley_2007	1	1	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
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.
NHNSW_2014	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm.
Nano_2011	1	1	C. E. M. Nano and P. J. Clarke. “How do drought and fire influence the patterns of resprouting in Australian deserts?”. Plant Ecology 212 (2011), pp. 2095-2110. doi: 10.1007/s11258-011-9988-x.
Osborne_2014	1	1	C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
Simpson_2021	1	1	K. J. Simpson, E. C. Jardine, S. Archibald, E. J. Forrestel, C. E. R. Lehmann, G. H. Thomas, and C. P. Osborne. “Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders”. New Phytologist 230 (2021), pp. 832-844. doi: 10.1111/nph.17069.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.