AusTraits

Sonchus asper

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy: Sonchus asper (L.) Hill

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Sonchus asper (L.) Hill subsp. asper (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Sonchus oleraceus var. asper L. (nomenclatural synonym)
Misapplied names: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Sonchus asper subsp. glaucescens (Jord.) Ball (misapplied)
  • Sonchus asper subsp. nymanii (Tineo & Guss.) Hegi (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), LHI (naturalised), ACT (naturalised), Vic (naturalised), Tas (naturalised)

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (12), Burrows_2008_2 (4), Burrows_2020 (3), Cheal_2017 (21), Doherty_2021 (3), NHNSW_2014_2 (3), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (15), NSWFRD_2014 (4), Purdie_1976 (8), RBGV_2022 (6), RBGV_2023 (28), SAH_2022 (9), SAH_2023 (29), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Standish_2019 (6), Tsakalos_2020 (17), WAH_2022_1 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 46 traits from 190 records in 23 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 (9) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Cheal_2017; Doherty_2021; NSWFRD_2014; Purdie_1976; Standish_2019]
  • post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (4) [sources: Cheal_2017; Purdie_1976]
flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 2.52 mm (2-3.2 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 1.3 mm (0.8-1.8 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): achene (8) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Sjostrom_2006; Tsakalos_2020]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (4); orange (1); yellow (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 175.62 mm (40-300 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 45 mm (20-70 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): lanceolate (3); narrowly_ovate (1); oblanceolate (3); ovate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (3); toothed_dentate (3) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_margin_posture (categorical): undulate (2) [sources: RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (8); lobed_deep (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_glaucousness (categorical): glaucous (2); not_glaucous (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_hairs_adult_leaves (categorical): glabrous (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (8) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (12) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_form (categorical): therophyte (1) [sources: Purdie_1976]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (15); biennial (7) [sources: ABRS_2022; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Cheal_2017; NHNSW_2022; Purdie_1976; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (11); woody_root (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2); rosette (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Tsakalos_2020; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
  • root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (2) [sources: Standish_2019; Tsakalos_2020]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: Tsakalos_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Purdie_1976]
  • dispersers (categorical): wind (2) [sources: NSWFRD_2014; Purdie_1976]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnyyy (1); ynnnnnnyyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; Tsakalos_2020]
  • seedbank_location (categorical): none (2); soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; Doherty_2021; Standish_2019]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): widely_dispersed (3) [sources: Cheal_2017]
  • storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (3) [sources: SAH_2023]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Doherty_2021]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
SAH_20231329S. 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/.
RBGV_20231328VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Cheal_2017721D. Cheal. Growth stages and tolerable fire intervals for Victoria's native vegetation data sets. Fire and adaptive management, report no. 84. Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment Melbourne, 2010.
Tsakalos_20201617J. L. Tsakalos, M. Renton, F. Riviera, E. J. Veneklaas, M. P. Dobrowolski, and L. Mucina. “Trait-based formal definition of plant functional types and functional communities in the multi-species and multi-traits context”. Ecological Complexity 40 (2019), p. 100787. doi: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2019.100787.
NHNSW_20231115N. 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_20231012Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
SAH_202239S. 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/.
Purdie_197688R. W. Purdie and R. O. Slatyer. “Vegetation succession after fire in sclerophyll woodland communities in south-eastern Australia”. Australian Journal of Ecology 1 (1976), pp. 223-236.
RBGV_202236VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Standish_201966R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Burrows_2008_244N. D. Burrows, G. Wardell-Johnson, and B. Ward. “Post-fire juvenile period of plants in south-west Australia forests and implications for fire management”. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 91 (2008), pp. 163-174. ISSN: 0035922X. url: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19156 (visited on 03/27/2025).
NSWFRD_201444B. 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.
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_144Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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.
Burrows_202033N. Burrows. Data from 'Plant Ecological Attributes' theme, NatureMap, DBCA, WA. 2020.
Doherty_202133M. Doherty. “Fire Severity and Plant Community Dynamics in the Australian Alps, Southeastern New South Wales”. PhD. Australian National University, 2021. url: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/224564.
NHNSW_2014_233Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202233N. 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/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.