A dataset on the plant growth form and life form of vascular plants in China

Plant growth and life-forms are important morphological traits for understanding the response and adaptation of plants to environmental changes and are of great significance for the study of the relationship between plants and their environment and ecosystem functions. They are also vital traits in understanding of the geographic distribution pattern of plants and the mechanism of the formation and maintenance of biodiversity. According to the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae and Flora of China, China has a large number of vascular plants and it is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of plant diversity. However, the descriptions of plant growth form and life form in the current edition of Flora of China are characterized by non-uniform classification standards, in which some of the information is missing, incorrect or ambiguous. In this paper, based on the information of plant traits in national and local flora literature and field surveys, we revised the growth form and life form traits of vascular plants, and established a dataset of the growth form and life form of vascular plants in China. The dataset consists of 35,329 vascular plant species, including plant names, growth form and life form traits, and their data sources. The plant names included names both from the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae , Flora of China , and from the Catalogue of Life China: 2023 Annual Checklist, to allow the readers to cross-check the differences between both taxonomic systems. Based on the degree of stem lignification, plants were classified into two groups: woody plants (12,600 species, 35.7%) and herbaceous plants (22,729 species, 64.3%). The woody plants were primarily dominated by medium shrub growth form (2,917 species, 23.2%) and evergreen life form (7,107 species, 56.4%). The herbaceous plants were dominated by the forb growth form (19,900 species, 87.6%) and the perennial life form (19,554 species, 86.0%). Among the woody plants, tree species were dominated by the families Lauraceae and Fagaceae, and of shrub species by Ericaceae, Fabaceae, and Rosaceae; evergreen species were dominated by Ericaceae and deciduous species primarily consisted of Rosaceae. Among herbaceous growth forms, the forbs were dominated by Asteraceae, and the grasses by Poaceae; The annual herbaceous plants were dominated by Poaceae, biennial species by Boraginaceae, and perennial species by Asteraceae. This dataset covers all the vascular plant species and their growth form and life form in China, and can provide a data foundation for the study of plant traits in future research endeavors.