We addressed the recent plea for a use of traits with a direct mechanistic link to drought tolerance to be considered in trait-based and global change ecology. On 122 herbaceous species covering a broad range of water availability conditions in temperate grasslands, we demonstrated the feasibility of the use of turgor loss point (π_tlp), a key leaf drought tolerance trait that becomes operational for large-scale studies via the novel osmometry method. We investigated the coordination of this mechanistic trait with other commonly used proxies of drought tolerance. π_tlpwas not or very weakly coordinated with the first two leading dimension of the global spectrum of form and function, plant height and specific leaf area. π_tlp was tightly coordinated with intrinsic water use efficiency and leaf dry matter content. We suggest that stratification by plant functional types and/or accounting for species phylogeny might help to identify trait relationships that may be transferable among different systems.