Abstract
Plant nutritional properties (crude protein, fibers, minerals, and carbohydrates) and chemical defenses (tannins and phenols) are key traits determining food quality and feeding preferences of animals and humans. Plant nutritional properties are also relevant to crop production and livestock. Here we present PNuts, a global database containing > 1000 species and > 13,000 records of nutritional properties of different plant organs complete with location and time of collection (year/month/season). Species include crops and wild plants and are classified in six functional groups: legumes, herbs, grasses, lianas, shrubs and trees. Plant organs include leaf, fruit, seed, stem, twigs, flower, root, and bark. PNuts data can be used as inputs for ecological analyses and model parametrization requiring large amounts of data. PNuts provides an important tool to better understand the importance of nutritional properties in plant eco-physiology and the implications for humans and animals’ food quality and plant-animal interactions in a context of global changes.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
