Whole plant form and function vary spectacularly across the seed plants. In recent years, plant evolutionary ecologists have begun to document this diversity on large geographic scales by analysing ‘functional traits’ that are indicative of whole plant performance across environmental gradients (Swenson & Enquist 2007, Wright et al. 2004). Despite the high degree of functional diversity in tropical forests, convergence in function does occur locally along successional or light gradients (Bazzaz & Pickett 1980, Swaine & Whitmore 1988).
