ABSTRACT: Classifying plants into ecophysiological strategies is key to predict species vulnerability and community assembly under climate changes. However, it remains unclear whether differences in species growth rates under drought can be predicted by plant classification schemes, such as CSR (C% - Competitor, S% - Stress-tolerant or R% - Ruderal) and Levitt’s scheme (Dehydration-tolerance, -avoidance, or -escape). Here, we measured 11 morpho-physiological traits in 10 woody species in a seasonally dry tropical ecosystem (Campos de altitude, southeastern Brazil) to investigate (i) the linkages between these schemes and (ii) whether they explain annual and seasonal (dry vs. wet) species growth rates. By showing the capacities and limitations of two classic plant strategy schemes, our study revealed new insights on the linkages plant strategy-performance-environment to improve niche and community assembly theories and predict species vulnerability to different drought types.