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Understanding the variation of functional traits of plant species along forest successional gradients may provides useful insights into community assemblages. However, species performance during forest succession is controversial. We explored the variation of leaf traits along a forest succession by examining ten leaf traits in four successional stages in a monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest in Southwest China. Results showed significant differences in all leaf traits except leaf area and leaf carbon content among the successional stages. Five leaf traits were highly correlated to successional stage, while the first principal component showed no correlation with successional stage. The first principal component accounted for 56.1% of the total variation in all ten leaf traits. Almost 50% of the relationships between leaf traits differed along the examined successional gradient, indicating that leaf traits were affected by the successional stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]