Habit Growth Form List

  • Tree
      A tree is a woody plant, usually with less then 3 stems and more than 5m tall.

  • Shrub
      A shrub is a woody plant, usually with more than 1 stem and less than 8m tall. A shrub usually has its principal branching point at or near soil level.

  • Mallee
      A member of the genus Eucalyptus with many branches arising from a massive underground stem or lignotuber.

  • Sub-shrub
      Shrub-like but the stems are herbaceous in their upper parts and die back during adverse conditions.

  • Herb
      No woody tissue present.

  • Fern
      Any pteridophyte.

  • Parasite
      A terrestrial parasite is a tree, shrub or herb.

  • Vine or Liana
      A climer rooted in the ground.

  • Grass, Sedge, Rush or Graminoid
      These may be qualified by "tussock" or "tufted".

  • Arborescents
      Shrub, grass or herb e.g. bamboo.

  • Rosette tree
      Unbranched stem with crown of leaves, e.g. palms, cycads, Xanthorrhoea, tree ferns.

  • Rosette shrub
      e.g. Dianella.

  • Stem-succulent shrub
      Rare e.g. Sarcostemma, Opuntia and some Euphorbia.

  • Hummock grass
      Triodia and Plechtrachne

  • Mat and Cushion Plants
      Found in alpine areas.

Habit Qualifier List

  • Clonal, thicket forming.

  • Straight, crooked, slender, robust, whipstick, virgate.

  • Open, dense, diffuse.

  • Many-,/ few-,/ long,/ short- stemmed.

  • Divaricate,/ flexuose,/ drooping,/ erect,/ spreading,/ whorled,/ intricate,/ arching stems, branches or branchlets.

  • Much-,/ few- branched.

  • Erect, leaning, decumbent, procumbent, prostrate, ascending, pendulous.

  • Weak, trailing, straggling.

  • Pyramidal,/ cylindrical,/ rounded,/ umbrella-shaped,/ spreading,/ weeping crown.

  • Tufted, tussock.

  • Creeping,/ shortly creeping,/ extensively creeping,/ rhizome, rhizomatous, rooting at nodes.

 

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CSIRO ANBG