Ptilotus helipteroides

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Family Amaranthaceae

Taxonomy: Ptilotus helipteroides (F.Muell.) F.Muell.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Ptilotus helipteroides (F.Muell.) F.Muell. var. helipteroides (nomenclatural synonym)
Trichinium brachytrichum F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
Trichinium helipteroides F.Muell. (nomenclatural synonym)
Trichinium helipteroides F.Muell. var. helipteroides (nomenclatural synonym)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), Jurado_1991 (6), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_5 (1), Kew_2019_6 (1), Munroe_2019 (1), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (14), Nano_2011 (2), SAH_2014 (3), SAH_2022 (4), SAH_2023 (5), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Sweedman_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_1 (4), WAH_2022_2 (8), WAH_2023_1 (10), WAH_2023_2 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 32 traits from 85 records in 22 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): fire_killed (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 2 mm (1.5-2.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_width (numerical): 1.15 mm (0.8-1.5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): utricle (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 300 mm2 (300-300 mm2) [sources: Jurado_1991]
leaf_length (numerical): 45.83 mm (5-70 mm) [sources: NTH_2023; SAH_2014; WAH_2023_1]
leaf_width (numerical): 6.33 mm (2-10 mm) [sources: NTH_2023; SAH_2014; WAH_2023_1]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); lanceolate (2); linear (1); narrowly_oblong (1); oblanceolate (1) [sources: NTH_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_1]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (4) [sources: NTH_2023; SAH_2023; WAH_2023_1]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Munroe_2019]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (7) [sources: Jurado_1991; NTH_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): annual (6) [sources: NTH_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: NTH_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (3); erect (3); rosette (1) [sources: NTH_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; WAH_2023_1]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (3) [sources: Draper_2023; Jurado_1991; Kew_2019_5]
dispersers (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnyyyyyyynn (1) [sources: WAH_1998]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.94 mg (0.85-1.03 mg) [sources: Jurado_1991; Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 1.5 mm (1.4-1.6 mm) [sources: WAH_2023_1]
seed_shape (categorical): lenticular (2) [sources: SAH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.44 m (0.02-0.6 m) [sources: NTH_2023; SAH_2014; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
NTH_2023	10	14	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/.
WAH_2023_1	7	10	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2022_2	4	8	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Jurado_1991	6	6	E. Jurado. “Diaspore weight, dispersal, growth form and perenniality of central Australian plants”. Journal of Ecology 79 (1991), pp. 811-828.
SAH_2023	3	5	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
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/.
SAH_2022	4	4	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.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.
Sweedman_2006	2	4	L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
WAH_2022_1	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_2	1	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Draper_2023	3	3	J. 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.
SAH_2014	3	3	J. P. Jessop and H. R. Toelken. Flora of South Australia, 4th edition, 4 vols. Electronic version curated by J. Kellermann, State Herbarium of South Australia.. Government Printer, Adelaide, 1986.
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).
Nano_2011	2	2	C. 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_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/.
Kew_2019_5	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed dispersal data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_6	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.
WAH_1998	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://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.