AusTraits

Sphaeranthus africanus

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy: Sphaeranthus africanus L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (14), Burrows_2008_2 (5), Burrows_2020 (5), NTH_2022 (3), NTH_2023 (9), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (4). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 24 traits from 51 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
flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): gynomonoecious (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 1.15 mm (0.9-1.4 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): achene (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 66.25 mm (20-120 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 21 mm (4-40 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); narrowly_elliptical (1); narrowly_obovate (1); obovate (1); widely_obovate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1); toothed_dentate (2); toothed_serrate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (1); shrub (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (2); perennial (3); short_lived_perennial (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020; NTH_2022; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (1); woody (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): spreading (1) [sources: ABRS_2022]
  • reproductive_maturity (numerical): 2 a (2-2 a) [sources: Burrows_2020]
  • seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Burrows_2008_2; Burrows_2020]
  • bud_bank_location (categorical): none (1) [sources: Burrows_2008_2]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.7 m (0.4-0.8 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
ABRS_20231014Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NTH_202379D. 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/.
Burrows_2008_255N. 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).
Burrows_202055N. Burrows. Data from 'Plant Ecological Attributes' theme, NatureMap, DBCA, WA. 2020.
ABRS_202244Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.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.
eFLOWER_Dun_202234L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
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/.
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.