Senecio spathulatus

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Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy: Senecio spathulatus A.Rich.

Synonyms: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Senecio spatulatus F.Muell. (orthographic variant)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Senecio lautus G.Forst. ex Willd. (pro parte misapplied)

Distribution (APC): NSW, Vic, Tas

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (11), Jordan_2001 (7), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (12), RBGV_2023 (3), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 41 traits from 67 records in 10 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): resprouts (1) [sources: White_2020]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): gynomonoecious (1); hermaphrodite (1); monoecious (1) [sources: Jordan_2001; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 5 mm (3-7 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): achene (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Jordan_2001; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (2); orange (2); yellow (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 30 mm (10-50 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); narrowly_oblong (1); oblanceolate (1); oblong (1); obovate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): cuneate (1); truncate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1); toothed_dentate (1); toothed_serrate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (1); unlobed (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; Jordan_2001; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (1); prostrate (1); sprawling (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): wind (1) [sources: White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]

seed morphology

seed_length (numerical): 4.5 mm (4.5-4.5 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001]
seed_width (numerical): 0.7 mm (0.7-0.7 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.5 m (0.5-0.5 m) [sources: ABRS_2023]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	19	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
NHNSW_2023	10	12	N. 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/.
ABRS_2023	9	11	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Jordan_2001	7	7	G. J. Jordan. “An investigation of long-distance dispersal based on species native to both Tasmania and New Zealand”. Australian Journal of Botany 49.3 (2001), pp. 333-340. doi: 10.1071/bt00024.
ABRS_2022	4	4	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2022	4	4	N. 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/.
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.
RBGV_2023	3	3	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
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.