Table 1.

Traits scored for species sampled in Madagascar and South Africa. (All traits were given a score between 0 and 1. New Zealand (NZ) scores for each trait are listed based on Bond et al.'s (2004) study of ratite-resistant plants and/or typical divaricates (Atkinson 1992; Kelly 1994; for more information, see electronic supplementary material, methods).)

trait	definition	NZ score
thin twigs	terminal 50 cm branch with predominantly thin (less than 3 mm) shoots	1
wide-angled branches	terminal 50 cm branch has several side shoots with wide-angled (greater than 70°) branches	1
three-dimensional-angled branching	side shoots branching at different planes from the main axis	1
leaf area	0.67×length×width of leaf. Small leaves are ratite resistant	1
inner/outer leaves	most leaves in interior of shrub with fewer leaves on exterior branches	1
high tensile strength	lateral branches unbroken when pulled with a force of approximately 10 kg	1
high lateral displacement	branches displaced by 50 cm or more when pulled	1
zigzag branching	main axis of terminal branches with a distinct zigzag form (figure 1a)	1
heteroblastic	markedly different juvenile and adult leaf size and branch architecture (cf. figure 1c,d). Ten tree species in NZ	1
thorns	presence of spines or prickles on stem (figure 1a). Thorns rare in NZ shrubs (Rubus spp., Discaria toumatou)	0