Plants with improved growth

A genetically modified woody plant comprising a heterologous nucleic acid construct comprising a promoter sequence operably linked to a coding sequence encoding a G47 gene comprising

• (i) a nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 21, 51, 53, 55, 101, or 103, or an ortholog thereof, or
• (ii) a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 1, 50, 52, 54, 100 or 102, or an ortholog thereof,
• wherein the promoter sequence is selected from the group consisting of:
• (a) a pLMP1 promoter sequence comprising the nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 13 or 33,
• (b) a pEC1 promoter sequence comprising the nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 12, 32 or 39, and
• (c) a pEA2 promoter sequence comprising the nucleotide sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 9 or 29,
• wherein the promoter sequence is preferentially or specifically expressed in at least one of cambium, vascular meristematic tissue, and shoot meristem tissue of said plant,
• wherein the modified plant has a modified trait as compared to a wild-type plant of the same species,
• wherein the modified trait is selected from one or more traits in the group of water use efficiency, plant yield, plant height, plant width, stem volume, stem dry weight, bark dry weight, wood density, leaf dry weight, average internode length, number of internodes, and drought tolerance, and
• wherein the modified trait is increased as compared to a wild-type plant of the same species when said plants are grown under identical field conditions for a period of at least one year.