AusTraits

Portulaca bicolor

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Portulacaceae

Taxonomy: Portulaca bicolor F.Muell.

Synonyms: 6 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Portulaca bicolor F.Muell. var. bicolor (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Portulaca bicolor var. pupurea Poelln. (orthographic variant)
  • Portulaca bicolor var. purpurea Poelln. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Portulaca bicolor var. rosea Maiden & Betche (taxonomic synonym)
  • Portulaca sp. (Bang Bang A.Schmid AS158) (taxonomic synonym)
  • Portulaca sp. Bang Bang (A.Schmid AS158) Qld Herbarium (taxonomic synonym)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (1), Lord_1997 (3), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (3), NHNSW_2022 (8), NHNSW_2023 (18), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (19), Nano_2011 (2), Schmidt_2003 (8), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (40). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 49 traits from 126 records in 19 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
  • flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); pink (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 2.45 mm (1.2-3.5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): capsule (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 4.1 mm (1-7.2 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 3.5 mm (1-6 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • petiole_length (numerical): 0.1 cm (0.1-0.1 cm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); orbicular (3); ovate (1); widely_obovate (1); widely_ovate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): opposite (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3-c4 (1); cam (2) [sources: Munroe_2019; White_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (9) [sources: Lord_1997; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (5) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): prostrate (6); spreading (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; White_2020]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (3) [sources: Schmidt_2003; White_2020]
  • root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (2) [sources: White_2020]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (3); self (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1); epizoochory (2); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023; Lord_1997; White_2020]
  • dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); birds (2) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nyyyyynnnnnn (1); yyyynnnnnnny (3) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_1998; White_2020]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: White_2020]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: White_2020]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]
nutrient and stable isotope
  • leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 14 mg/g (14-14 mg/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
  • leaf_delta13C (numerical): -28.4 {delta}[ppth] (-28.4--28.4 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.1 mg (0.1-0.1 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Lord_1997]
  • seed_length (numerical): 0.7 mm (0.5-0.9 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): ovoid (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
White_20202040M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NTH_20231519D. 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/.
NHNSW_2023818N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202248N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Schmidt_200388S. Schmidt and G. R. Stewart. “d15N values of tropical savanna and monsoon forest species reflect root specialisations and soil nitrogen status”. Oecologia 134 (2003), pp. 569-577. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-1150-y.
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.
WAH_2022_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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.
Lord_199733J. Lord, J. Egan, T. Clifford, E. Jurado, M. Leishman, D. Williams, and M. Westoby. “Larger seeds in tropical floras: Consistent patterns independent of growth form and dispersal mode”. Journal of Biogeography 24 (1997), pp. 205-211. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2699.1997.00126.x.
NHNSW_2014_233Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.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.
Kew_2019_111Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Munroe_201911S. 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.
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.