Woody plants may be killed by severe disturbance or resprout from vegetative tissue. Sprouters can persist at a site through several generations of nonsprouters. Differences in sprouting behavior are therefore important for understanding vegetation dynamics, extinction risks, and woody plant management. Although sprouting appears not to be uniquely correlated with many other intrinsic attributes, such as specific leaf area or breeding systems, a clear correlate is reduced seedling aboveground growth rates from sprouters allocating more to belowground structures. Consequently, sprouters tend to have low seedling recruitment rates, and saplings take longer to reach maturity. Keywords: life history Evolution, sprouting, fire ecology, disturbance, plant functional trait.