AusTraits

Sorghum plumosum

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Sorghum plumosum (R.Br.) P.Beauv.

Synonyms: 8 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Andropogon australis Spreng. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Andropogon australis Spreng. subsp. australis (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Andropogon australis subsp. plumosus Hack. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Andropogon australis var. genuinus Hack. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Andropogon plumosus (R.Br.) Backer (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Holcus plumosus R.Br. (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Sarga plumosum (R.Br.) Spangler (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Sorghum plumosum var. typicum Domin (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), GrassBase_2014 (6), Kew_2019_6 (1), Lord_1997 (2), Metcalfe_2020_2 (20), Mott_1978 (36), Munroe_2019 (2), Nano_2011 (2), Osborne_2014 (1), Rice_1991 (1), Simpson_2021 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Stephens_2021 (2), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (2). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 26 traits from 92 records in 18 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); yellow_orange (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
  • sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 3.9 mm (3.3-4.5 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (3) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006; WAH_2023_2]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 1650 mm2 (1650-1650 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 250 mm (150-400 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 9 mm (4-16 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: Munroe_2019; Osborne_2014]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (2); tussock (2) [sources: Lord_1997; Metcalfe_2020_2; Rice_1991; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_form (categorical): hemicryptophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: Simpson_2021; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (2) [sources: WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1); epizoochory (1) [sources: Lord_1997; Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyynnnnn (1); yyyyyyyynynn (1) [sources: Stephens_2021]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): belowground_clonal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2); rhizome (1) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; Simpson_2021]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 2.28 m (0.7-3 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
Mott_1978136J. J. Mott. “Dormancy and Germination in Five Native Grass Species From Savannah Woodland Communities of the Northern Territory”. Australian Journal of Botany 26.5 (1978), p. 621. ISSN: 0067-1924. doi: 10.1071/bt9780621.
Metcalfe_2020_21720D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
GrassBase_201436W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
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_233Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_223Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. 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).
Lord_199722J. Lord, J. Egan, T. Clifford, E. Jurado, M. Leishman, D. Williams, and M. Westoby. “Larger seeds in tropical floras: Consistent patterns independent of growth form and dispersal mode”. Journal of Biogeography 24 (1997), pp. 205-211. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2699.1997.00126.x.
Munroe_201912S. 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.
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.
Simpson_202122K. J. Simpson, E. C. Jardine, S. Archibald, E. J. Forrestel, C. E. R. Lehmann, G. H. Thomas, and C. P. Osborne. “Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders”. New Phytologist 230 (2021), pp. 832-844. doi: 10.1111/nph.17069.
Stephens_202112R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
eFLOWER_Dun_202212L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
Kew_2019_611Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Osborne_201411C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
Rice_199111B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Growth form of Kakadu plant species, Macquarie University”. 1991.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.