AusTraits

Schoenus melanostachys

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Cyperaceae

Taxonomy: Schoenus melanostachys R.Br.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Schoenus melanostachys R.Br. var. melanostachys (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Schoenus melanostachys var. altissima F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Schoenus melanostachys var. altissimus F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld, NSW, Vic

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (5), Benwell_2024 (4), Hughes_1992 (3), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kubiak_2009 (5), Leishman_1993 (1), Leishman_1995 (4), Metcalfe_2020_1 (3), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (4), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (8), NSWFRD_2014 (7), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (9), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 48 traits from 89 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): red_brown (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 1.55 mm (1.3-1.7 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 0.8 mm (0.8-0.8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 0.8 mm (0.8-0.8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): nut (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (2); red (2); yellow (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 5 mm (5-5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): linear (1) [sources: RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; Munroe_2019; White_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (3); tussock (3) [sources: Hughes_1992; Leishman_1995; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): caespitose (1); rhizomatous (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): barochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Leishman_1995; White_2020]
  • dispersers (categorical): invertebrates (1) [sources: White_2020]
  • flowering_time (categorical): ynnnnnnnyyyy (1); yynnnnnnyyyy (2); yynnnnnyyyyy (1) [sources: Hughes_1992; NHNSW_2014_2; NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
  • seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Benwell_2024; NSWFRD_2014]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; White_2020]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1); vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_1; White_2020]
  • storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.52 mg (0.5-0.53 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Leishman_1993; Leishman_1995]
  • seed_length (numerical): 1.3 mm (1.3-1.3 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
  • seed_width (numerical): 0.71 mm (0.71-0.71 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
  • seed_shape (categorical): fusiform (1) [sources: ANBG_2019]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
White_20201919M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
RBGV_202389VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202378N. 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/.
NSWFRD_201477B. Kenny, C. Orscheg, E. Tasker, M. A. Gill, and R. Bradstock. NSW Flora Fire Response Database, v2.1. database. NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment, 2014.
ANBG_201955Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
Kubiak_200935P. J. Kubiak. “Fire responses of bushland plants after the January 1994 wildfires in northern Sydney”. Cunninghamia 11.1 (2009), pp. 131-165.
Benwell_202444A. Benwell. “Fire responses of flora in a sclerophyll-rainforest vegetation complex in the Nightcap Range, North Coast, New South Wales”. Australian Journal of Botany 72.1 (2024). Ed. by D. Williams. ISSN: 1444-9862. doi: 10.1071/bt23049.
Leishman_199544M. R. Leishman, M. Westoby, and E. Jurado. “Correlates of seed size variation: A comparison among five temperate floras”. Journal of Ecology 83 (1995), pp. 517-529. doi: 10.2307/2261604.
NHNSW_2014_244Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202244N. 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/.
RBGV_202244VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.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.
Hughes_199233L. Hughes and B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Traits data for 643 species, Macquarie University”. 1992.
Metcalfe_2020_133D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Database of Cyperaceae traits, CSIRO”. 2020.
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/.
Leishman_199311M. Leishman. “Unpublished data: Seed mass data for Sydney species, Macquarie University”. 1990.
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.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.