Ecologists use plant functional traits, or physiological, chemical, and morphological characteristics of plants, to understand and predict core ecological processes, such as community assembly and ecosystem function. Traits possessed during the earliest stages of life are crucial to understanding vulnerable life stage transitions but remain understudied in trait-based ecology. Our goal for this session is to introduce ecologists to early plant life stages and how this critical period shapes individuals, populations, and communities, how (and what) to measure, and their application to trait-based plant ecology. The session will open with an introduction to the field, a discussion of seeds, germination, and seedlings, and how plant traits change through a plant’s lifetime. We will then review several research projects focused on early life stage traits and the applications of these traits to restoration and conservation. The presentation portion of the session will close with a talk on how early plant traits are critical to understanding plant regeneration in a rapidly changing world. Following the talks, we will host an open panel to provide an opportunity for the audience to join the conversation and to, as a group, identify gaps in knowledge that remain concerning early trait-based ecology. This session will appeal to a wide range of ESA participants working both in conceptual and applied ecological subdisciplines by covering a broad range of topics including population dynamics, community assembly, restoration, and global change, all in the context of trait-based ecology.