Phyllodium pulchellum

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Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Phyllodium pulchellum (L.) Desv.

Synonyms: 5 (APC 2026-07-30)

Desmodium pulchellum (L.) Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Dicerma pulchellum (L.) DC. (nomenclatural synonym)
Hedysarum pulchellum L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Meibomia pulchella (L.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)
Phyllodium pulchrum Desv. (orthographic variant)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), Kew_2019_1 (1), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (25), RussellSmith_2012 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (20). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 48 traits from 70 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): resprouts (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; RussellSmith_2012]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 11.5 mm (7-16 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 3.75 mm (3.5-4 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 75.5 mm (35-137 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 46.5 mm (18-83 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); ovate (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): cordate (1); rounded (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_margin_posture (categorical): undulate (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): annual (1); perennial (2); short_lived_perennial (1) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1) [sources: NTH_2022]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: NTH_2014]
flowering_time (categorical): nyyyyyynnnnn (1) [sources: NTH_2014]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: RussellSmith_2012]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (1); epicormic_buds (1) [sources: Crowley_2007]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 2.9 mg (2.9-2.9 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 3.25 mm (3-3.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 2.4 mm (2-2.8 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
seed_shape (categorical): reniform (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.5 m (1-2 m) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
NTH_2023	15	25	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	17	20	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
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/.
RussellSmith_2012	4	4	J. Russell-Smith, M. R. Gardener, C. Brock, K. Brennan, C. P. Yates, and B. Grace. “Fire persistence traits can be used to predict vegetation response to changing fire regimes at expansive landscape scales - an Australian example”. Journal of Biogeography 39 (2012), pp. 1657-1668. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02714.x.
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.
NTH_2014	3	3	Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
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/.
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).
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_2023_2	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://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.