life_form

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• Label: Life form
• Entity URI: https://w3id.org/APD/traits/trait_0030011
• Type: categorical
• Definition: Raunkiaer classification of life form, which is a feature of the whole plant [PO:0000003] defining the position [PATO:0000140] of the perennating meristematic tissue [PO:0006079] (buds [PO:0000055] or shoot apices [PO:0000037]) on the shoot system [PO:0009006], their distance [PATO:0000040] to the ground surface [sweetontology.net/realmSoil/Ground] and the protection afforded to survive the unfavourable season, or the production of seeds [PO:0009010] to avoid the unfavourable season.;Raunkiaer classification of life form, indicating the location of and protection provided to surviving meristematic tissue (buds) during the unfavourable (cold or dry) season.
• Additional comments: None
• Allowed values:

  value	description
  aerophyte	Plant that obtains moisture and nutrients from the air and rain, resting on other plants or the ground surface.
  chamaephyte	Plant whose perennating buds are on persistent shoots that do not extend more than 50 cm above the soil surface. These are normally woody perennials.
  cryptophyte	Plant whose perennating buds are subterranean or under water. This grouping can be further divided into geophyte, helophyte, and hydrophyte.
  epiphyte	Plant that grows on the surface of another plant.
  geophyte	Plant that perennates as an organ (rhizome, bulb, corm, or tuber) buried in dry soil, with all leaves dying back each year; a subcategory of cryptophyte.
  helophyte	Plant that perennates as an organ (rhizome, bulb, corm, or tuber) buried in marshy or wet soil or lying under water, with buds emerging during the growing season and shoots and leaves rising about the water surface; a subcategory of cryptophyte. (Synonyms, emergent_hydrophyte)
  hemicryptophyte	Plant whose perennating buds are at or near the soil surface.
  hydrophyte	Plant that perennates as buds or as an organ (rhizome, bulb, corm, or tuber) buried in marshy or wet soil or lying under water, with shoots emerging during the growing season that remain below or at the water surface; a subcategory of cryptophyte.
  phanerophyte	Plant whose perennating buds are on persistent shoots which rise at least 50 cm above the soil surface. These are normally woody perennials.
  therophyte	Annual plants whose shoot and root systems die completely at the end of flowering and seed production, such that they survive the unfavourable cold or dry season in the form of seeds.

See the AusTraits Plant Dictionary (https://w3id.org/APD/traits/trait_0030011) for additional information about this trait.

Coverage

For this trait, AusTraits includes a total of 4,039 records. This includes:

• data for 2,709 species.
• data for 156 families.
• data from 14 datasets (see the portal Citations tab for a list of sources)