plant_physical_defence_structures

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• Label: Physical defence structures
• Entity URI: https://w3id.org/APD/traits/trait_0030020
• Type: categorical
• Definition: A plant structure morphology trait [TO:0000839] which indicates the plant structures [PO:0009011] used for defence [NCIT:C61556], including spine leaves [PO:0025173], spine stipules [PO:0025174], spine petiole [PO:0025613], thorns [PO:0025172], and prickles [PO:0025169].;The presence (or explicit absence) of specific physical defence structures on a plant, including spines, thorns, prickles, and sharp-tipped leaves.
• Additional comments: This trait identifies explicit physical defence structures on a plant. The trait `plant_spinescence` indicates the degree of defence afforded to plants, with values defined by Pérez-Harguindeguy et al. 2013 (doi:10.1071/BT12225).
• Allowed values:

  value	description
  absent	Plant that lacks a physical defence structure.
  prickle	A sharp-tipped outgrowth from the epidermis, bark or other plant organ that is explicitly not a spine (modified leaf) or thorn (modified stem).
  pungent_leaf_apex	A sharp-tipped leaf.
  sharp_pointed_defence	Plant that has either spines, thorns, or prickles but the type of physical defence structure is not specified.
  spine	A sharp-pointed structure, which is a modified leaf or leaf part, including petioles, midribs, secondary veins, leaflets, or stipules.
  stinging_or_irritant_hairs	Trichomes that sting or irritate, by injecting a toxin.
  thorn	A sharp-pointed, stiff, woody modified stem.

See the AusTraits Plant Dictionary (https://w3id.org/APD/traits/trait_0030020) for additional information about this trait.

Coverage

For this trait, AusTraits includes a total of 9,574 records. This includes:

• data for 7,854 species.
• data for 197 families.
• data from 5 datasets (see the portal Citations tab for a list of sources)