While root acquisition strategies at regional and global scales are broadly associated with climate, soil resource availability, and plant phylogeny, there is additional variation in functional traits at the local scale that is substantial, yet remains poorly understood. We sampled 115 species across five growth forms (trees, shrubs, lianas, herbs, and ferns) from a temperate forest and measured seven key functional traits of first-order roots. Most trait variations were greater among growth forms than within them. Root tissue density (RTD) and specific root length (SRL) showed the highest variation compared with other traits. Variance partitioning analysis revealing the growth form showed the largest explaining of RTD and SRL variations. Among the five growth forms, herbs had the thinnest root diameter, highest root nitrogen concentration, and longest SRL, as well as the lowest ratio of root carbon to nitrogen, while ferns exhibited the thickest cortex thickness and stele diameter. Compared with trees and shrubs, lianas had longer SRL and lower RTD. Importantly, species aggregated in root economics space separately by growth forms, illustrating consistent differences in soil resource strategies among growth forms from fast to slow acquisition. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) demonstrated the primary roles of RTD and SRL in separating different growth forms within the root economics space. Such diverse strategies among plant growth forms may allow species to avoid strong competition and promote species coexistence in a local forest community. These findings improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying community assembly and stability from a below-ground perspective.