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Population projection (Lefkovitch) matrices are now a standard method for quantifying and analyzing the demography and population dynamics of plants. Elasticity analysis of such a matrix indicates the relative effect on the population growth rate (λ) of small changes to matrix elements representing different transitions in the life cycle. In a comparison of elasticity matrices for 84 species of plants we show that the relative importance of recruitment from seed (measured by composite elasticity F), stasis (measured by composite elasticity L), and growth (measured by composite elasticity G) varies systematically between the groups semelparous herbs, iteroparous herbs of open habitats, forest herbs, shrubs, and trees. We discuss how this result might be used to construct rules of thumb useful in plant conservation. By looking in detail at how λ covaries with the composite elasticities F, L, and G among 16 populations of …