AusTraits

Sesuvium portulacastrum

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Aizoaceae

Taxonomy: Sesuvium portulacastrum (L.) L.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Halimus portulacastrum (L.) Kuntze (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Portulaca portulacastrum L. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Sesuvium portulacustrum D.G.Williams (orthographic variant)

Distribution (APC): WA, CoI, ChI, NT, Qld, NSW, LHI

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (13), Brock_1993 (10), Kew_2019_1 (6), Kew_2019_3 (3), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (8), NHNSW_2024 (11), NTH_2014 (3), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (11), Schmidt_2003 (8), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Stephens_2023 (1), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (7), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (16). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 57 traits from 118 records in 21 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 8 mm (8-8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2024; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): capsule (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 49.16 mm (10-70 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Brock_1993; NHNSW_2014_2; NHNSW_2024]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 8 mm (2-15 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Brock_1993; NHNSW_2014_2; NHNSW_2024]
  • leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.36 g/g (0.36-0.36 g/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
  • leaf_type (categorical): broadleaf (1) [sources: NHNSW_2024]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); lanceolate (3); linear (3); oblanceolate (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; Brock_1993; NHNSW_2024; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; Brock_1993; NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2014]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): opposite (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; NTH_2023]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Kew_2019_3; Munroe_2019]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (6) [sources: ABRS_2022; Brock_1993; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (6) [sources: ABRS_2022; Brock_1993; NTH_2022; Schmidt_2003; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (1); prostrate (2); sprawling (1); spreading (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Brock_1993]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
  • pollination_system (categorical): bee (1) [sources: Stephens_2023]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnyyyyyyyyyy (1); yyyyyyyyyyyy (1) [sources: NTH_2014; WAH_1998]
nutrient and stable isotope
  • leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 23 mg/g (23-23 mg/g) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
  • leaf_delta13C (numerical): -26.22 {delta}[ppth] (-26.22--26.22 {delta}[ppth]) [sources: Schmidt_2003]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.49 mg (0.37-0.67 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_width (numerical): 1.5 mm (1.5-1.5 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): comma-shaped (1); globoid (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.2 m (0.1-0.3 m) [sources: Brock_1993; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
eFLOWER_Dun_20221416L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
ABRS_20231113Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_20241011N. 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/.
NTH_20231111D. 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/.
Brock_1993810J. Brock and A. Dunlop. Native plants of northern Australia. Reed New Holland, 1993. ISBN: 9781877069246.
NHNSW_2014_268Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Schmidt_200388S. Schmidt and G. R. Stewart. “d15N values of tropical savanna and monsoon forest species reflect root specialisations and soil nitrogen status”. Oecologia 134 (2003), pp. 569-577. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-1150-y.
Wright_200077I. 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.
Kew_2019_116Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_202244D. 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/.
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.
WAH_2022_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
ABRS_202233Australian 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_333Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Salt and water tolerance data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
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.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.
Stephens_202311R. E. Stephens, R. V. Gallagher, L. Dun, W. Cornwell, and H. Sauquet. “Insect pollination for most of angiosperm evolutionary history”. New Phytologist 240.2 (2023), pp. 880-891. ISSN: 1469-8137. doi: 10.1111/nph.18993.
WAH_199811Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
WAH_2023_211Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.