Observed life histories of animals reflect trade-offs among growth, reproduction, and survival that serve to maximize fitness under particular environmental regimes. Body size and age at first reproduction, as expressions of growth and developmental rates, are key trade-off elements. I estimated relative growth rates in three species of desmognathine salamanders that vary markedly in body size and habitat associations. Sampling was conducted in two assemblages of the species in the southern Blue Ridge of North Carolina. The species, ranked from larger to smaller, were Desmognathus quadramaculatus, D. monticola, and D. ocoee. An existing skeletochronological database served as a source of age estimates in salamanders for which standard lengths had been recorded. Body masses were estimated for these individuals from regressions of mass on standard length. Relative growth rates were estimated by the Gompertz model for growth in standard length and body mass, and by the von Bertalanffy model for growth in body mass only. In young salamanders, higher relative growth rates were recorded in the smaller species; this trend reversed at later ages wherein relative growth rates were greater in larger species over the remainder of the salamanders' life spans. In all three species in both assemblages, the maximum rates of absolute growth in mass occurred near or within the conjoint age range at first reproduction of the two sexes. Body size differences among these species result from differences in propagule size, growth rate, and (as one index of reproductive effort) age at sexual maturation. I present evidence that larger adult body sizes are a product of larger eggs, larger hatchlings, higher rates of growth, and lower reproductive effort in these and other species of Desmognathus, in southern Appalachian assemblages of the genus.