Polygala pterocarpa

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Family Polygalaceae

Taxonomy: Polygala pterocarpa R.A.Kerrigan

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Polygala sp. Winged fruit (R.A.Kerrigan 917) NT Herbarium (taxonomic synonym)

Misapplied names: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)

Polygala chinensis L. (pro parte misapplied)
Polygala rhinanthoides Sol. ex Benth. (pro parte misapplied)
Polygala rhinanthoides Sol. ex Benth. (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (17), Munroe_2019 (1), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (15), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 18 traits from 46 records in 8 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): capsule (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 40 mm (3-77 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 6 mm (1-11 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
petiole_length (numerical): 0.12 cm (0-0.25 cm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (2); linear (2); narrowly_elliptical (2); oblanceolate (2); obovate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Munroe_2019]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): annual (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]

seed morphology

seed_length (numerical): 3.88 mm (3.06-4.7 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 1.7 mm (1.31-2.1 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (1); ovoid (2); ovoid_elongated (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
ABRS_2023	12	17	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_2023	10	15	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.
ABRS_2022	3	3	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_2022	3	3	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/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.