Rostellularia adscendens

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Family Acanthaceae

Taxonomy: Rostellularia adscendens (R.Br.) R.M.Barker

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Justicia adscendens R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)

Misapplied names: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Justicia notha C.B.Clarke (misapplied)
Rostellularia procumbens (L.) Nees (pro parte 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: ATRP_2020 (1), Cooper_2013 (11), Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), Kooyman_2011 (12), NHNSW_2014_2 (10), NHNSW_2024 (10), NTH_2022 (2), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (7), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Soliveres_2012 (2), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (38), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (24). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 64 traits from 138 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

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (3) [sources: Crowley_2007; White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); green (1); pink (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 5.5 mm (3-7 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2024]
fruit_type (categorical): capsule (4) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2024; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 17.5 mm (5-30 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2014_2; NHNSW_2024]
leaf_width (numerical): 6.17 mm (2-15 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2014_2; NHNSW_2024]
leaf_type (categorical): broadleaf (1) [sources: NHNSW_2024]
leaf_shape (categorical): oblong (2); ovate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2024; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NHNSW_2014_2; SAH_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): opposite (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: NHNSW_2024; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (8); shrub (3); subshrub (2) [sources: ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; SAH_2022; Soliveres_2012; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): annual (2); perennial (2) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4); semi_woody (1); woody (1) [sources: NTH_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (1) [sources: SAH_2022]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (2) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (3) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (2); epizoochory (2) [sources: Draper_2023; Soliveres_2012; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): mammals (2); passive (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnnnn (1); yyyyyynnnnnn (1); yyyyyyyyyynn (1); yyyyyyyyyyyy (2) [sources: Cooper_2013; 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 (1) [sources: Crowley_2007]

seed morphology

seed_length (numerical): 1 mm (1-1 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011]
seed_width (numerical): 1 mm (1-1 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
seed_shape (categorical): discoid (1) [sources: SAH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.42 m (0.05-0.5 m) [sources: Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2014_2; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (2) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	38	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	20	24	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
Kooyman_2011	8	12	R. Kooyman, M. Rossetto, W. Cornwell, and M. Westoby. “Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and subtropical rain forests”. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20 (2011), pp. 707-716. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00641.x.
Cooper_2013	9	11	W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
NHNSW_2014_2	8	10	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2024	7	10	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on December, 2023.. 2024. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
SAH_2023	7	7	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.
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_2022	3	3	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/.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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).
NTH_2022	2	2	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/.
Soliveres_2012	2	2	S. Soliveres, D. J. Eldridge, F. Hemmings, and F. T. Maestre. “Nurse plant effects on plant species richness in drylands: The role of grazing, rainfall and species specificity”. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 14 (2012), pp. 402-410. doi: 10.1016/j.ppees.2012.09.003.
WAH_2023_2	1	2	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_2020	1	1	F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
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.