A Database of Fruit and Seed Morphological Traits and Images from Subtropical Flora of Hong Kong

Plant functional traits are key to understanding species performance, community assembly and ecosystem processes. Fruit and seed traits play an important role in early life-cycle processes by influencing seed dispersal, germination, and establishment, ultimately shaping plant regeneration and ecosystem dynamics. While global initiatives such as TRY and Seed Information Database (SID) have assembled extensive trait data, coverage of reproductive traits remains limited, and high-quality images of diaspores are particularly scarce, particularly in subtropical Asia. To address this need, we created an open-source, comprehensive database of fruit and seed traits, accompanied by diaspore images against a high-contrast background. This dataset documents 684 species in 128 families recorded in Hong Kong and provides standardised measurements of morphological attributes (e.g., length, mass, number of seeds per fruit) and dispersal characteristics (e.g., presence of appendages). Our measurements were validated against previously published records of common species in Hong Kong, showing strong consistency with R2 = 0.80 (p < 0.001) for fruit dry mass and R2 = 0.91 (p < 0.001) for seed dry mass, respectively. This database provides a valuable resource for trait-based ecology, forest dynamics and conservation biology. Additionally, it supports applications in ecological restoration, habitat management, and predicting plant responses to environmental change. This initiative enhances our understanding of trait-based ecology by complementing global initiatives such as TRY and SID and improving the representation of reproductive traits from subtropical Asia, a region that is underrepresented in existing global databases.