Without knowledge of seed germination requirements, conservation seed bank collections cannot be utilised, nor their viability monitored over time. When germination is low, deciding whether to invest further seed, time and resources into investigating why can be difficult. We investigated the germinability of 37 grassy ecosystem seed bank collections, including germination response to fire-related cues. Where germination was < 75% we investigated seed viability using the tetrazolium chloride (TZ) staining test. Germination and TZ test results were then compared to determine next steps in collection management. Using 95% confidence intervals of the difference between germination and viability, the 37 collections were assigned to one of seven different data- informed management decisions. This approach provides a detailed decision support framework for conservation collection management, to strengthen current guidelines and ensure that time and resources are effectively allocated. Other seed banks could customise this approach depending on the number of seeds used in testing and what percentage of germination is considered sufficient.

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of measurements of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 375 traits across 29230 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxa descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological parameters (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual-, species- and genus-level observations coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties. This data descriptor provides information on version 2.1.0 of AusTraits which contains data for 937243 trait-by-taxa combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data to increase our collective understanding of the Australian flora. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.