Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.

Seed movement and delayed germination have long been thought to represent alternative risk‐spreading strategies, but current evidence covers limited scales and yields mixed results. Here we present the first global‐scale test of a negative correlation between dispersal and dormancy. The result demonstrates a strong and consistent pattern that species with dormant seeds have reduced spatial dispersal, also in the context of life‐history traits such as seed mass and plant lifespan. Long‐lived species are more likely to have large, non‐dormant seeds that are dispersed far. Our findings provide robust support for the theoretical prediction of a dispersal trade‐off between space and time, implying that a joint consideration of risk‐spreading strategies is imperative in studying plant life‐history evolution. The bet‐hedging patterns in the dispersal–dormancy correlation and the associated reproductive traits have implications for biodiversity conservation, via prediction of which plant groups would be most impacted in the changing era.

The baobab trees (genus Adansonia) have attracted tremendous attention because of their striking shape and distinctive relationships with fauna¹. These spectacular trees have also influenced human culture, inspiring innumerable arts, folklore and traditions. Here we sequenced genomes of all eight extant baobab species and argue that Madagascar should be considered the centre of origin for the extant lineages, a key issue in their evolutionary history^2,3. Integrated genomic and ecological analyses revealed the reticulate evolution of baobabs, which eventually led to the species diversity seen today. Past population dynamics of Malagasy baobabs may have been influenced by both interspecific competition and the geological history of the island, especially changes in local sea levels. We propose that further attention should be paid to the conservation status of Malagasy baobabs, especially of Adansoniasuarezensis and Adansoniagrandidieri, and that intensive monitoring of populations of Adansoniaza is required, given its propensity for negatively impacting the critically endangered Adansoniaperrieri.

Background: The evolutionary success of flowering plants is associated with the vast diversity of their reproductive structures. Despite recent progress in understanding angiosperm-wide trends in floral structure and evolution, a synthetic view of the diversity in seed form and function across angiosperms is lacking. Scope: Here we present a roadmap to synthesize the diversity of seed forms in extant angiosperms, relying on the morphospace concept, i.e. a mathematical representation which relates multiple traits and describes the realized morphologies. We provide recommendations on how to broaden the range of measurable traits beyond mass, by using key morphological traits representative of the embryo, endosperm and seed coat but also fruit attributes (e.g. dehiscence, fleshiness). These key traits were used to construct and analyse a morphospace to detect evolutionary trends and gain insight into how morphological traits relate to seed functions. Finally, we outline challenges and future research directions, combining the morphospace with macroevolutionary comparative methods to underline the drivers that gave rise to the diversity of observed seed forms. Conclusions: We conclude that this multidimensional approach has the potential, although still untapped, to improve our understanding of covariation among reproductive traits, and further elucidate angiosperm reproductive biology as a whole.