AusTraits

Piliostigma malabaricum

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Piliostigma malabaricum (Roxb.) Benth.

Synonyms: 8 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Bauhinia acida Reinw. ex Korth. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Bauhinia gilesii F.Muell. & F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
  • Bauhinia hawkesiana F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
  • Bauhinia malabarica Roxb. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Bauhinia malabarica Roxb. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Piliostigma acidum (Reinw. ex Korth.) Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Piliostigma malabaricum (Roxb.) Benth. var. malabaricum (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Piliostigma malabaricum var. acidum (Reinw. ex Korth.) de Wit (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_1981 (3), ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (18), ATRP_2020 (1), Chen_2017 (8), Cooper_2013 (14), Crowley_2007 (2), Kew_2019_1 (3), Kooyman_2011 (7), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (16), Nano_2011 (2), RussellSmith_2012 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (1), Yang_2023 (2). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 33 traits from 103 records in 21 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: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; RussellSmith_2012; Yang_2023]
flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): dioecious (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 235 mm (90-360 mm) [sources: Chen_2017; ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 15.83 mm (10-25 mm) [sources: Chen_2017; ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (4); legume_indehiscent (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; Chen_2017; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (3) [sources: Chen_2017; Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3); indehiscent (1) [sources: Chen_2017; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); red (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 71.25 mm (30-110 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 90 mm (40-130 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • petiole_length (numerical): 2.95 cm (1.2-4.7 cm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): cordate (1); elliptical (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Kooyman_2011]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: ABRS_1981; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (3); tree (7) [sources: ABRS_2022; ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): deciduous (2); evergreen (1) [sources: ABRS_1981; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014]
  • dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnynnnnnnnn (1); yyyynnnnnnnn (1); yyyynnnnnnny (2) [sources: ABRS_1981; Chen_2017; Cooper_2013; NTH_2014]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: RussellSmith_2012]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_buds (1); basal_stem_buds (2); bud-bearing_root (2); rhizome (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; Yang_2023]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 317.51 mg (69.01-597.8 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 5.5 mm (4-8 mm) [sources: Chen_2017; ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 3.5 mm (3-4 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 8.75 m (2-10 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
ABRS_20231218Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_20231316D. 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/.
Cooper_20131114W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
Chen_201788Chen, S.-C., Cornwell, W., Z. H.-X., Moles, and A. T. “Plants show more flesh in the tropics: Variation in fruit type along latitudinal and climatic gradients.”. Ecography 40 (2017), pp. 531-538. doi: abs/10.1111/ecog.02010.
Kooyman_201167R. Kooyman, M. Rossetto, W. Cornwell, and M. Westoby. “Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and subtropical rain forests”. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20 (2011), pp. 707-716. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00641.x.
ABRS_202244Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
RussellSmith_201244J. 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_200644A. 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_198133B. A. Barlow, H. T. Clifford, A. S. George, and A. K. A. McCusker. Flora of Australia. 1981. url: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/flora/main/.
Kew_2019_113Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_201433Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
NTH_202233D. 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/.
WAH_2022_233Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Crowley_200722G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Nano_201122C. 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.
WAH_2023_212Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Yang_202322S. Yang. “Unpublished data: Fire response traits scored from national and state floras and the taxonomic literature, University of New South Wales”. 2023.
ATRP_202011F. 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.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.
Wright_200011I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.