AbstractThe leaves of many tropical trees have besides the normal stomata abnormally large stomata long described as “giant stomata.” They reflect an additional early phase of stomata initiation during leaf ontogeny. In epidermal replicas from more than 200 dicotyledonous species of temperate climate we also found well defined giant stomata or solitary stomata of normal size in the majority of woody plants, but rarely in herbaceous plants. There is no relationship between taxonomic group and presence of giant stomata.