AusTraits

Sesbania formosa

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Sesbania formosa (F.Muell.) N.T.Burb.

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Agati formosa F.Muell. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Agati formosum F.Muell. (nomenclatural synonym)
Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Poir. (pro parte misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld (doubtfully naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Brock_1993 (12), Crowley_2007 (2), Gross_2005 (4), Kew_2019_1 (2), Kooyman_2011 (13), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (14), Nano_2011 (2), RussellSmith_2012 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Sweedman_2006 (3), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 30 traits from 75 records in 17 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; Nano_2011; RussellSmith_2012]
flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2) [sources: Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 450 mm (450-450 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (3) [sources: Gross_2005; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (3) [sources: Gross_2005; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 34 mm (19-60 mm) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 10.67 mm (5-17 mm) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1) [sources: Brock_1993]
  • leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (3) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (1); tree (4) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (4) [sources: Brock_1993; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (3) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2014]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnyynnnnnn (1); nnyyyyyyynnn (1) [sources: Brock_1993; NTH_2014]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: RussellSmith_2012]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 33.69 mg (31.8-35.58 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 7.38 mm (5.5-9 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 3.75 mm (3-5 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): cylindrical (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 10.06 m (2.5-15 m) [sources: Brock_1993; Kooyman_2011; NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
NTH_20231114D. 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/.
Kooyman_20111013R. 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.
Brock_1993912J. Brock and A. Dunlop. Native plants of northern Australia. Reed New Holland, 1993. ISBN: 9781877069246.
Gross_200544C. L. Gross. “A comparison of the sexual systems in the trees from the Australian tropics with other tropical biomes-more monoecy but why?”. American Journal of Botany 92.6 (2005), pp. 907-919. doi: 10.3732/ajb.92.6.907.
RussellSmith_201244J. Russell-Smith, M. R. Gardener, C. Brock, K. Brennan, C. P. Yates, and B. Grace. “Fire persistence traits can be used to predict vegetation response to changing fire regimes at expansive landscape scales - an Australian example”. Journal of Biogeography 39 (2012), pp. 1657-1668. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02714.x.
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.
NTH_201433Northern Territory Herbarium. Flora of the Darwin Region Online. 2014. url: http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/herbarium/darwin_flora_online.
NTH_202233D. 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/.
Sweedman_200613L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
WAH_2022_233Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Crowley_200722G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Kew_2019_112Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Nano_201122C. 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.
WAH_2023_212Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.
Wright_200011I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.