The relative importance of competition vs. environmental filtering in the assembly of communities is com- monly inferred from their functional and phylogenetic structure, on the grounds that similar species com- pete most strongly for resources and are therefore less likely to coexist locally. This approach ignores the possibility that competitive effects can be determined by relative positions of species on a hierarchy of competitive ability. Using growth data, we estimated 275 interaction coefficients between tree species in the French mountains. We show that interaction strengths are mainly driven by trait hierarchy and not by func- tional or phylogenetic similarity. On the basis of this result, we thus propose that functional and phyloge- netic convergence in local tree community might be due to competition-sorting species with different competitive abilities and not only environmental filtering as commonly assumed. We then show a func- tional and phylogenetic convergence of forest structure with increasing plot age, which supports this view.