Ptychosperma elegans

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Family Arecaceae

Taxonomy: Ptychosperma elegans (R.Br.) Blume

Synonyms: 17 (APC 2026-07-30)

Actinophloeus capitis-yorkii Burret (taxonomic synonym)
Archontophoenix elegans (R.Br.) H.Wendl. & Drude ex Rock (nomenclatural synonym)
Archontophoenix jardinei F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Archontophoenix sp. (doubtful taxonomic synonym)
Pinanga smithi W.Hill (taxonomic synonym)
Pinanga smithii Scheff. (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma capitis-yorkii H.Wendl. & Drude (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma elegans var. sphaerocarpa Becc. (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma elegans var. sphaerocarpum Becc. (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma jardinei (F.M.Bailey) Becc. ex F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma seaforthia Miq. (nomenclatural synonym)
Ptychosperma wendlandiana Burret (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma wendlandiana Burret var. wendlandiana (taxonomic synonym)
Ptychosperma wendlandiana var. sphaerocarpum (Becc.) Burret (taxonomic synonym)
Saguaster capitis-yorkii (H.Wendl. & Drude) Kuntze (taxonomic synonym)
Saguaster elegans (R.Br.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)
Seaforthia elegans R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (12), Cooper_2013 (14), Kew_2019_1 (2), Metcalfe_2009 (17), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 35 traits from 55 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.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]

flower morphology

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

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 18 mm (12-20 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
fruit_width (numerical): 11.25 mm (8-13 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
fruit_height (numerical): 12 mm (12-12 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): drupe (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; Metcalfe_2009; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): red (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 43200 mm2 (43200-43200 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
leaf_length (numerical): 2070 mm (840-3300 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
plant_growth_form (categorical): palmoid (3); tree (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; Cooper_2013; Metcalfe_2009; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): phanerophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; Metcalfe_2009; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): semi_woody (1); woody (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; Wenk_2022]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
root_structure (categorical): mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): beetle (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): endozoochory (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
dispersers (categorical): birds (1); cassowaries (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyynnnnn (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): transient (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]
clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): non_clonal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 150.62 mg (1.25-300 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 13 mm (11-15 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
seed_width (numerical): 7.5 mm (7.5-7.5 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]

stem morphology

wood_density (numerical): 0.35 mg/mm3 (0.35-0.35 mg/mm3) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 13.5 m (12-15 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2009]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2009	17	17	E. Laliberte, J. A. Wells, F. DeClerck, D. J. Metcalfe, C. P. Catterall, C. Queiroz, I. Aubin, S. P. Bonser, Y. Ding, J. M. Fraterrigo, S. McNamara, J. W. Morgan, D. S. Merlos, P. A. Vesk, and M. M. Mayfield. “Land-use intensification reduces functional redundancy and response diversity in plant communities”. Ecology Letters 13.1 (2010), pp. 76-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01403.x.
Cooper_2013	11	14	W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
ABRS_2023	11	12	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.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.
Kew_2019_1	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.