AusTraits

Swainsona microphylla

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Swainsona microphylla A.Gray

Synonyms: 5 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Swainsona microphylla A.Gray subsp. microphylla (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Swainsona microphylla subsp. minima A.T.Lee (taxonomic synonym)
  • Swainsona microphylla subsp. tomentosa A.T.Lee (taxonomic synonym)
  • Swainsona microphylla var. minima J.M.Black (taxonomic synonym)
  • Swainsona microphylla var. tomentosa J.M.Black (taxonomic synonym)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (2), Kew_2019_6 (2), Leishman_1992 (7), NHNSW_2014_2 (4), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (13), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (19), SAH_2022 (8), SAH_2023 (39), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Sweedman_2006 (4), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wenk_2023_2 (1), White_2020 (80). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 53 traits from 203 records in 20 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): blue_purple (1); pink (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 7.67 mm (5-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 5.25 mm (3-8 mm) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 5 mm (4-6 mm) [sources: SAH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (6) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 8 mm2 (8-8 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1992]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 44.85 mm (1-150 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 2.31 mm (1-5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): obcordate (3); oblong (1); obovate (1); obtriangular (1); orbicular (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_base_shape (categorical): cuneate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (5) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (5) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (4) [sources: White_2020]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (12); subshrub (1) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
  • life_history (categorical): biennial (1); perennial (5) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (7) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (3); erect (1); prostrate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (4) [sources: White_2020]
  • parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (4) [sources: White_2020]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (5) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
  • dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (4); barochory (1); zoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
  • dispersers (categorical): abiotic (1); animals (1); passive (1); wind (4) [sources: Draper_2023; White_2020]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnyyynnn (1); nnnnnyyyyynn (4) [sources: WAH_1998; White_2020]
  • seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (4) [sources: White_2020]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (4) [sources: White_2020]
  • storage_organ (categorical): no_storage_organ (1) [sources: Leishman_1992]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.71 mg (0.02-1.6 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1; Leishman_1992]
  • seed_length (numerical): 1.5 mm (1.5-1.5 mm) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 1 mm (1-1 mm) [sources: SAH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): reniform (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
whole plant morphology

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
White_20202080M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
SAH_20231439S. 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_20231319VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2023813N. 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/.
SAH_202248S. 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/.
Leishman_199277M. R. Leishman and M. Westoby. “Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits-Evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands”. Journal of Ecology 80 (1992), pp. 417-424. doi: 10.2307/2260687.
NHNSW_2014_244Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202244N. 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/.
RBGV_202244VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.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.
Sweedman_200624L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
WAH_2022_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Draper_202333J. 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_112Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_612Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
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.
Wenk_2023_211E. Wenk and D. Coleman. “Unpublished: Rain and flood-related flowering cues for Australia's flora, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2023.