Swainsona affinis

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Swainsona affinis (A.T.Lee) Joy Thomps.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Swainsona microphylla subsp. affinis A.T.Lee (nomenclatural synonym)
Swainsona microphylla subsp. glabrescens A.T.Lee (taxonomic synonym)
Swainsona microphylla subsp. pallescens A.T.Lee (taxonomic synonym)
Swainsona microphylla var. affinis J.M.Black (taxonomic synonym)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Swainsona microphylla A.Gray (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW

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

Traits

Top source datasets: ANBG_2019 (10), Crowley_2007 (2), Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (3), Kew_2019_6 (2), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (4), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (12), NTH_2023 (4), Nano_2011 (2), SAH_2022 (6), SAH_2023 (30), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (40). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 46 traits from 136 records in 19 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): resprouts (4) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); pink (1); white_cream (1); yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 8 mm (5-11 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 28.75 mm (2-100 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 4.25 mm (1-8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): narrowly_oblong (1); obcordate (2); oblong (3); orbicular (1); widely_elliptical (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (5) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (3) [sources: Munroe_2019; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (8) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): prostrate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (2) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (3) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (2); barochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); passive (1); wind (2) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnyyyyynn (2) [sources: White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (2) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (2) [sources: White_2020]
bud_bank_location (categorical): basal_stem_buds (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 2.44 mg (2.13-2.92 mg) [sources: ANBG_2019; Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 2.37 mm (2.37-2.37 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_width (numerical): 2.1 mm (2.1-2.1 mm) [sources: ANBG_2019]
seed_shape (categorical): reniform (1) [sources: ANBG_2019]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.21 m (0.05-0.3 m) [sources: NHNSW_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (2) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	20	40	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
SAH_2023	6	30	S. 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/.
NHNSW_2023	7	12	N. 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/.
ANBG_2019	7	10	Australian National Botanic Gardens. The National Seed Bank. 2018. url: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/.
SAH_2022	2	6	S. 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/.
NHNSW_2014_2	4	4	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2022	4	4	N. 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/.
NTH_2023	3	4	D. 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_2006	4	4	A. 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_2	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Draper_2023	3	3	J. T. Draper, S. Delean, J. G. Conran, P. Weinstein, and B. S. Simpson. “Life-history characteristics and climate correlates of dioecious plant species in central southern Australia”. Australian Journal of Botany unknown.unknown (2023), p. unknown. doi: 10.1071/BT22110.
Kew_2019_1	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Crowley_2007	2	2	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Kew_2019_6	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Nano_2011	2	2	C. 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_2	1	2	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Munroe_2019	1	1	S. 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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.