Understanding tree growth variations and underlying growth strategies across diverse environments is important for comprehending forest dynamics. Plant growth analysis, in which relative growth rate (RGR, growth rate/biomass) is decomposed into net assimilation rates (NAR, growth rate/leaf area) and leaf area ratio (LAR, leaf area/biomass), can provide insights into variations in plant growth strategies. As a proxy for leaf area, crown area derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be utilized to decompose the RGR of canopy trees into space use efficiency (SUE, growth rate/crown area) and space occupation efficiency (SOE, crown area/biomass). This crown-based growth analysis approach was applied in 23 sites of temperate natural forests across Japan (1 ha plot each), to analyze variations of tree growth strategies of 103 species from 3,747 canopy individuals. The dataset encompassed a wide range of environmental gradients (mean annual temperature (MAT), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and snow cover). We found that canopy tree growth strategies differed among species and functional types. Evergreen species, both conifers and broadleaf, exhibited higher SUE but lower SOE compared to deciduous broadleaf species even though RGR values were not significantly different among the three functional types. Differences in SUE and SOE were associated with species-specific leaf traits, such that deciduous species with high specific leaf area exhibited high SOE but low SUE, compared to evergreen species. Across environmental gradients, SOE increased with decreasing MAT and PAR, while SUE increased with increasing MAT and PAR. This is expected as deciduous species in cold and low-light areas spread crown to maximize light capture, while evergreen species in warmer sites prioritize growth per unit crown area. Snow also modulated these patterns, with deciduous broadleaf species maintaining higher SOE across snow-depth gradients whereas evergreen conifers had low SOE, which represent two contrasting strategies to reduce damages from snow weight. This newly developed analytical framework offers a novel approach for assessing canopy tree growth strategies and understanding growth rates variations in natural forest stands.