The TRY plant trait database, established in 2007, has grown significantly and now provides open access to a vast amount of plant trait data. It is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide and supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including identifying data gaps and mobilizing or measuring new data. The database covers a wide range of plant traits, including morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and phenological characteristics. However, many traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships, which require measurement on individual plants in their respective environments. Despite the unprecedented data coverage, there is a lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. The database is supported by various funding bodies, including the Max Planck Society, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and others. The TRY database has been developed through a community-driven approach, with contributions from various research groups. The database has grown significantly over the years, with versions 1–5 released, and is now working on version 6. The database has been accessed by over 5,000 registered users and has released over 700 million trait records and 3 billion ancillary data for 7,000 requests. The database is open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license, allowing anyone to use and redistribute data with appropriate citation. The TRY Data Portal is the central access point for the database, providing an account for each data set custodian and enabling interaction between data contributors, management, and users. The database has contributed to at least 250 scientific applications and publications, including 202 peer-reviewed publications in 83 different scientific journals. The database has been used in various studies, including root trait functionality, tundra ecosystem change, and crop plant traits. The database has also been used in the development of the GIFT database and the sPlot initiative. The database has been used to analyze plant communities across the world's biomes and has contributed to the development of global vegetation-plot databases. The database has been used to analyze the distribution of plant species richness and has been used to address the representativeness of plant trait data in the TRY database. The database has been used to analyze intraspecific variation and has been used to assess the impact of the minimum number of individuals per species on the number of species available for analysis. The database has been used to assess the geographic distribution of species richness and has been used to compare the number of species with trait measurements in ecoregions to species numbers estimated by Kier et al. (2005). The database has been used to assess the coverage of plant traits in different regions and has been used to identify gaps in data coverage. The database has been used to assess the representativeness of plant trait data in the TRY database and hasThe TRY plant trait database, established in 2007, has grown significantly and now provides open access to a vast amount of plant trait data. It is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide and supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including identifying data gaps and mobilizing or measuring new data. The database covers a wide range of plant traits, including morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and phenological characteristics. However, many traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships, which require measurement on individual plants in their respective environments. Despite the unprecedented data coverage, there is a lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. The database is supported by various funding bodies, including the Max Planck Society, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and others. The TRY database has been developed through a community-driven approach, with contributions from various research groups. The database has grown significantly over the years, with versions 1–5 released, and is now working on version 6. The database has been accessed by over 5,000 registered users and has released over 700 million trait records and 3 billion ancillary data for 7,000 requests. The database is open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license, allowing anyone to use and redistribute data with appropriate citation. The TRY Data Portal is the central access point for the database, providing an account for each data set custodian and enabling interaction between data contributors, management, and users. The database has contributed to at least 250 scientific applications and publications, including 202 peer-reviewed publications in 83 different scientific journals. The database has been used in various studies, including root trait functionality, tundra ecosystem change, and crop plant traits. The database has also been used in the development of the GIFT database and the sPlot initiative. The database has been used to analyze plant communities across the world's biomes and has contributed to the development of global vegetation-plot databases. The database has been used to analyze the distribution of plant species richness and has been used to address the representativeness of plant trait data in the TRY database. The database has been used to analyze intraspecific variation and has been used to assess the impact of the minimum number of individuals per species on the number of species available for analysis. The database has been used to assess the geographic distribution of species richness and has been used to compare the number of species with trait measurements in ecoregions to species numbers estimated by Kier et al. (2005). The database has been used to assess the coverage of plant traits in different regions and has been used to identify gaps in data coverage. The database has been used to assess the representativeness of plant trait data in the TRY database and has