Back to the future for plant phenology research

Blockbusterfilmserials–of the typeoftenreleasedaround this timeof year – sometimes recharge a popular, but somewhat dragging, franchise by a time-travel trip to the past. Such trips can invigorate by providing important background on characters and storylines, making the return to the current plot more compelling and rich. In this issue of New Phytologist, Panchen et al. in their article ‘Leaf out times in temperate woody plants are related to phylogeny, deciduousness, growth habit andwood anatomy’ (pp. 1208–1219) attempt a similar – and welcome – recharge to the current field of plant phenology research.