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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