The document describes the products of a workshop to select functional traits to be measured for up to 6,000 tree and shrub species at 20 large forest dynamics plots that participate in the Center for Tropical Forest Science (http://www.ctfs.si.edu/doc/index.php). The products include 14 key traits to be measured, a survey of the literature availability of these traits for tropical trees, and preliminary analyses of relationships between tree mortality rates and selected traits. The workshop was held in June 2006 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.