It has long been believed that plant species from the tropics have higher levels of traits
associated with resistance to herbivores than do species from higher latitudes. A meta‐
analysis recently showed that the published literature does not support this theory. However,
the idea has never been tested using data gathered with consistent methods from a wide
range of latitudes.• We quantified the relationship between latitude and a broad range of
chemical and physical traits across 301 species from 75 sites world‐wide.• Six putative …

It has long been believed that plant species from the tropics have higher levels of traits
associated with resistance to herbivores than do species from higher latitudes. A meta-
analysis recently showed that the published literature does not support this theory. However,
the idea has never been tested using data gathered with consistent methods from a wide
range of latitudes. We quantified the relationship between latitude and a broad range of
chemical and physical traits across 301 species from 75 sites world-wide. Six putative …