Table 1.

Correlations (r) between phenolic concentration (total phenolics and tannin activity, the latter measured as protein precipitation) and leaf toughness (measured as work-to-shear of a leaf strip and as specific work-to-shear)

	Total phenolics		Tannin activity (protein precipitation)
	Work-to-shear	Specific work-to-shear	Work-to-shear	Specific work-to-shear
All species (n = 125, 96)	0·166 (0·060)	0·105 (0·236)	0·163 (0·065)	0·135 (0·126)
Australia
Kwongan and woodland (n = 25, 19)	0·225 (0·280)	0·172 (0·410)	0·257 (0·215)	0·273 (0·187)
Eucalypt forest understorey (n = 15, 12)	0·223 (0·424)	0·205 (0·464)	0·395 (0·145)	0·313 (0·256)
Tropical rainforest (n = 19, 18)	−0·280 (0·245)	−0·117 (0·634)	−0·229 (0·346)	−0·150 (0·539)
New Caledonia (all species) (n = 66, 58)	0·343 (0·003)	0·245 (0·039)	0·321 (0·006)	0·230 (0·053)
Dry forest (n = 22, 21)	−0·022 (0·923)	−0·128 (0·572)	0·098 (0·664)	−0·037 (0·871)
Rainforest (n = 27, 24)	0·497 (0·007)*	0·443 (0·018)	0·471 (0·012)*	0·387 (0·042)
Maquis (n = 21, 20)	0·251 (0·272)	0·430 (0·052)	0·490 (0·024)*	0·538 (0·012)*

All data were log-transformed for analysis, except tannin activity. The associated P-values are given in parentheses, with significant values (P < 0·05) indicated in bold. An asterisk indicates significant correlations using phylogenetic independent contrasts. For n, the first value is the number of species, followed by the number of phylogenetic contrasts tested.