Table 2.

Summary of differences in key functional traits between conifers and angiosperms.

Trait	Angiosperms	Conifers	References
Wood anatomy	Vessels	Tracheids	Brodribb et al., 2012
	Ring-porous and diffuse-porous
	Homogeneous pit membrane	Torus-margo pit membrane
	Cylindrical phloem sieve elements Companion cells	Cuboidal phloem sieve elements Strasburger cells	Jensen et al., 2012
	Companion cells	Strasburger cells
Wood parenchymal fraction	High	Low	Nardini et al., 2011; Meinzer and McCulloh, 2013
Woody-tissue NSC content	High	Low	Hoch et al., 2003; Michelot et al., 2012
Wood density	High	Low	Poorter et al., 2012
Xylem embolism recovery capacity	High	Low	Bucci et al., 2003; Salleo et al., 2004; Brodribb et al., 2010
Sensitivity to freeze-thaw embolism	High	Low or absent	Cavender-Bares et al., 2005
Hydraulic safety margins	Narrow or negative	Wide	Choat et al., 2012
Water potential causing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity	Low	High	Choat et al., 2012
Xylem capacitance	High (ring-porous)	Low	Meinzer and McCulloh, 2013
	Medium (diffuse-porous)
Rate of C transfer	High	Low	Jensen et al., 2012
Sap flow velocity	High	Low	Jensen et al., 2012
Phloem conductivity	High	Low	Jensen et al., 2012
Phloem sieve-element resistance	Low	High	Jensen et al., 2012
Leaf lifespan	Shorter	Longer	Lusk et al., 2003
Shade tolerance	High	Low	Poorter et al., 2012
Interspecific shade-tolerance/drought-tolerance trade-off	Yes	Yes	Niinemets and Valladares, 2006
Mesophyllic conductance	High	Low	Niinemets et al., 2011
Photosynthetic capacity	High	Low	Lusk et al., 2003; Flexas et al., 2012
Stomatal density	High	Low	Flexas et al., 2012
Stomatal conductance sensitivity to VPD (m)	High (ring-porous)	Low	Johnson et al., 2012; Barbeta et al., 2013; Meinzer et al., 2013; Poyatos et al., 2013
	Medium-low (diffuse-porous)
Distal leaf and root embolism and refilling	Rare	Frequent	Johnson et al., 2012