Environmental forces and biotic interactions, both positive and negative, structure ecological communities, but their relative roles remain obscure despite strong theory. For instance, ecologically similar species, based on the principle of limiting similarity, are expected to be most competitive and show negative interactions. Specious communities that assemble along broad environmental gradients afford the most power to test...

For the majority of plant species in the world, we know little about their functional ecology, and not even one of the most basic traits—the species’ growth habit. To fill the gap in availability of compiled plant growth‐form data, we have assembled what is, to our knowledge, the largest global database on growth‐form as a plant trait. We have, with extensive error checking and data synthesis, assembled a growth‐form database...