EcoPlant is a national phytoecological database that has been developed at the French Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (ENGREF) in Nancy, France. Its first aim is to store and manage floristic and ecological information from numerous phytoecological releves contained in various written documents (catalogues of forest sites, Ph.D. dissertations, forest networks). All 6,500 relevés currently integrated in EcoPlant are described with up to 200 ecological variables and they include (i) a complete floristic description (list of all species present with associated cover/abundance coefficient), (ii) an accurate description of the local environment (site microclimate conditions, soil horizons description, precise localisation in space and time allowing plot mapping and computation of numerous climatic variables through GIS manipulations) and (iii) physical and chemical analysis of soil samples (e.g. acidity: pH, mineral nutrition: exchangeable Ca, Mg, K, Na, nitrogen: C/N, NH4, NO3, phosphorous: P2O5, or toxicity: exchangeable Al and H). EcoPlant has been recently used to characterise tree species ecological niche and productivity. This presentation should include a brief description of the database (structure, informatics and management), as well as some of the recent key findings on bio-indication (indicator values), species response curves, empirical species distribution and productivity modelling. Perspectives in the use of EcoPlant include for example: (i) predictive geographical modelling of plant species or communities in France, (ii) creating a link with other European phytosociological or life traits databases, (iii) investigating the response of forest plant species (indicator values) along large European gradients.