AusTraits

Polycarpaea breviflora

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Family Caryophyllaceae

Taxonomy: Polycarpaea breviflora F.Muell.

Synonyms: 10 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Polycarpa breviflora Kuntze (orthographic variant)
  • Polycarpaea brevianthera Ewart & Cookson (taxonomic synonym)
  • Polycarpaea breviflora F.Muell. var. breviflora (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Polycarpaea breviflora var. gracilis (Benth.) Pedley (taxonomic synonym)
  • Polycarpaea corymbosa var. breviflora (F.Muell.) Domin (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Polycarpaea parviflora Domin (taxonomic synonym)
  • Polycarpaea synandra var. gracilis Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Polycarpaea triloba Ewart & Cookson (taxonomic synonym)
  • Polycarpon breviflora Kuntze (orthographic variant)
  • Polycarpon breviflorum (F.Muell.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)
Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Polycarpaea spirostylis subsp. glabra (C.T.White & W.D.Francis) Pedley (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (18), Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (1), NTH_2014 (4), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (16), Nano_2011 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 29 traits from 65 records in 14 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
flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 2.9 mm (2.1-3.7 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): capsule (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 18.5 mm (9-28 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 0.85 mm (0.5-1.2 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): linear (2); narrowly_oblanceolate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2014]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): whorled (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (3); perennial (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): bushy (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: NTH_2014]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
  • dispersers (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnyyynnnnnnn (1); nnyyyyyyynnn (1) [sources: NTH_2014; WAH_1998]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.04 mg (0.04-0.04 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 0.45 mm (0.4-0.5 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): reniform (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.25 m (0.25-0.25 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
ABRS_20231418Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_20231216D. 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/.
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.
NTH_201444Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
NTH_202244D. 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_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.
Draper_202333J. T. Draper, S. Delean, J. G. Conran, P. Weinstein, and B. S. Simpson. “Life-history characteristics and climate correlates of dioecious plant species in central southern Australia”. Australian Journal of Botany unknown.unknown (2023), p. unknown. doi: 10.1071/BT22110.
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.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_111Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_199811Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.