Urochloa polyphylla

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Urochloa polyphylla (R.Br.) R.D.Webster

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Brachiaria polyphylla (R.Br.) Hughes (nomenclatural synonym)
Panicum polyphyllum R.Br. (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), Lord_1997 (3), Metcalfe_2020_2 (20), NHNSW_2014 (1), Nano_2011 (2), Osborne_2014 (1), Simpson_2021 (2), Sjostrom_2006 (4), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 24 traits from 49 records in 13 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 (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1); hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

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): 150 mm2 (150-150 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 50 mm (20-80 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_width (numerical): 5 mm (3-7 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (2); herb (1); tussock (2) [sources: Lord_1997; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): therophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): annual (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); barochory (1) [sources: Lord_1997; Metcalfe_2020_2]
flowering_time (categorical): nyyyyyyynnnn (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
clonal_spread_mechanism (categorical): aboveground_clonal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2); stolon (1) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011; Simpson_2021]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 2.08 mg (2.08-2.08 mg) [sources: Lord_1997]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.49 m (0.15-0.6 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	18	20	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
GrassBase_2014	3	6	W. 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_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.
Lord_1997	3	3	J. 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.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
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).
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.
Simpson_2021	2	2	K. 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.
WAH_2023_2	2	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.
NHNSW_2014	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm.
Osborne_2014	1	1	C. 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.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.