Research data supporting the publication "Seed Size Variation of Trees and Lianas in a Tropical Forest of Southeast Asia: Allometry, Phylogeny, and Seed Trait - Plant Functional Trait Relationships"

Research data supporting the publication:

Seed size variation of trees and lianas in a tropical forest of Southeast Asia: allometry, phylogeny, and seed trait - plant functional trait relationships

Original Research, Front. Plant Sci. - Functional Plant Ecology

Here, we compiled a unique dataset of seed size (seed mass and geometrical size metrics) based on collections of more than 5,200 seeds of 196 woody plant species, covering >98 and 70% of tree and liana stems, respectively, located on a 30-ha plot in a tropical evergreen forest in central Thailand. Seeds, are stored in the BBH herbarium at BIOTEC of the National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand. Many seeds (38.3%) have been collected from gibbons’ feces during gibbon monitoring. Most seeds of species dispersed by gibbons (through defecation) have hard seed coats and do not change in their morphology during gut passage. However, most seeds (46.4%) were collected while monitoring plant phenology. Rarely, when seeds were not available in the herbarium, mostly from rare or non-fruiting species (15.3%), we used information from field-recorded and unpublished data of Mo Singto plot. Seed mass refers to the dry weight of endosperm and embryo including the seed coat but excluding any morphological structures, such as wings, that aid dispersal. Before measuring and weighing, seeds were oven-dried at 60°C for at least 3 days. After drying, we immediately measured each seed in three dimensions: length (L), the longest linear dimension; width (W), the widest orthogonal direction to L; and thickness (T), the largest orthogonal side to both the L and W, using a Vernier caliper
with 2-digit micrometer precision. We weighed the same seed on a microgram balance (PB303, Mettler, Toledo).