Oplismenus compositus

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Oplismenus compositus (L.) P.Beauv.

Synonyms: 5 (APC 2026-07-30)

Oplismenus compositus var. setarius F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Orthopogon compositus (L.) R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)
Orthopogon setarius (Lam.) Spreng. (taxonomic synonym)
Panicum compositum L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Panicum setarium Lam. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): ChI, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (1), Crowley_2007 (2), GrassBase_2014 (6), Kew_2019_1 (1), Metcalfe_2020_2 (14), NHNSW_2014 (1), Nano_2011 (2), Osborne_2014 (1), Simpson_2021 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 23 traits from 35 records in 12 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) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
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): 1365 mm2 (1365-1365 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 130 mm (20-240 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]
leaf_width (numerical): 17.5 mm (8-27 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): tussock (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: ATRP_2020; Simpson_2021; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1) [sources: Wenk_2022]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnyyyyynnnn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1 mg (1-1.01 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Metcalfe_2020_2]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.82 m (0.15-1.5 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	14	14	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
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.
Sjostrom_2006	3	3	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.
Crowley_2007	2	2	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Nano_2011	2	2	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.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_2020	1	1	F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_2014	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm.
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.