The recent availability of open‐access repositories of functional traits has revolutionized trait‐based approaches in ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, the underrepresentation of tropical regions and lineages remains a pervasive bias in plant functional trait databases, which constrains large‐scale assessments of plant ecology, evolution, and biogeography. Here, we present MelastomaTRAITs 1.0, a comprehensive and updatable database of functional traits for the pantropical Melastomataceae, the ninth‐largest angiosperm family with 177 genera and more than 5800 species. Melastomataceae encompass species with a wide diversity of growth forms (herbs, shrubs, trees, epiphytes, and woody climbers), habitats (including tropical forests, savannas, grasslands, and wetlands from sea level to montane areas above the treeline), ecological strategies (from pioneer, edge‐adapted and invasive species to shade‐tolerant understory species), geographic distribution (from microendemic to continental‐wide distribution), reproductive, pollination, and seed dispersal systems. MelastomaTRAITs builds on 581 references, such as taxonomic monographs, ecological research, and unpublished data, and includes four whole‐plant traits, six leaf traits, 11 flower traits, 18 fruit traits, and 27 seed traits for 2520 species distributed in 144 genera across all 21 tribes. Most data come from the Neotropics where the family is most species‐rich. Miconieae (the largest tribe) contains the highest number of trait records (49.6%) and species (41.1%) records. The trait types with the most information in the database were whole‐plant traits, flowers, and leaf traits. With the breadth of functional traits recorded, our database helps to fill a gap in information for tropical plants and will significantly improve our capacity for large‐scale trait‐based syntheses across levels of organization, plant–animal interactions, regeneration ecology, and thereby support conservation and restoration programs. There are no copyright restrictions on the dataset; please cite this data paper when reusing the data.

中文翻译：

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MelastomaTRAITs 1.0：泛热带被子植物大科野牡丹科功能性状数据库

最近功能性状开放获取存储库的出现彻底改变了生态学和进化中基于性状的方法。然而，热带地区和谱系的代表性不足仍然是植物功能性状数据库中普遍存在的偏见，这限制了对植物生态、进化和生物地理学的大规模评估。在这里，我们推出了 MelastomaTRAITs 1.0，这是一个全面且可更新的泛热带野牡丹科功能性状数据库，该科是第九大被子植物科，拥有 177 个属和 5800 多个物种。野牡丹科包括具有多种生长形式（草本、灌木、乔木、附生植物和木本攀缘植物）、栖息地（包括热带森林、稀树草原、草原和从海平面到林线以上山地地区的湿地）、生态策略（从先锋、边缘适应和入侵物种到耐荫林下物种）、地理分布（从微地方性到大陆范围内的分布）、生殖、授粉和种子传播系统。 MelastomaTRAITs 基于 581 份参考文献，例如分类学专着、生态研究和未发表的数据，包括分布在 144 个属的 2520 个物种的 4 个全株性状、6 个叶性状、11 个花性状、18 个果实性状和 27 个种子性状所有21个部落。大多数数据来自该科物种最丰富的新热带地区。 Miconieae（最大的部落）包含最多数量的性状记录（49.6％）和物种（41.1％）记录。数据库中信息最多的性状类型是全株性状、花和叶性状。随着功能性状记录的广度，我们的数据库有助于填补热带植物信息的空白，并将显着提高我们在组织、动植物相互作用、再生生态学层面进行大规模性状合成的能力，从而支持保护和恢复计划。数据集没有版权限制；重复使用数据时请引用此数据文件。