It is one of major challenges in community ecology to understand how species functional differences in traits associate with their distribution and demographic performance. We examined how alien, endemic and indigenous species differ in their traits and how such differences associate with demographic properties or distribution patterns across 22 co-existing woody species at Sekimon, Hahajima in the Ogasawara islands. The result of a principal component analysis showed that the first, second and third dimensions were associated with leaf economics, wood economics and differences in life history (deciduous or evergreen and alien, endemic or indigenous), respectively. Of the three dimensions, only the second dimension was significantly associated with resprouting frequency and relative abundance across soil habitats. In conclusion, species differences along the wood economic spectrum plays an important role in the ecological strategies, but alien species did not show difference from native species along this spectrum.