Background/Question/Methods Advancing spring phenology is among the most visible, highly documented, and well-studied ecological impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Long-term monitoring, historical records, and experiments have established that plant phenology in general is shifting earlier in response to warmer temperatures, while populations, species, and functional groups vary in the sensitivity of their responses. These variations in phenological sensitivity may disrupt the timing of ecological interactions, causing phenological mismatch as interacting species shift their phenological events at different rates in response to environmental change. Our team found an overshadowed mismatch in the non-trophic interaction between canopy trees and understory wildflowers. Both growth forms advanced spring phenology in warmer temperatures, but records dating back to Henry David Thoreau capture a heightened sensivity in tree leaf out. Earlier canopy leaf out shades out the high-light period that understory wildflowers depend on for early season carbon gain. When we first published this work, most phenological mismatch research highlighted trophic interactions; comparisons of phenological sensitivity across plant growth forms were rare. Looking back from 2021, what have we learned about shade, understory wildflowers, and historical ecological records? Results/Conclusions After spending the COVID-19 pandemic in a Thoreauvian, home-bound state, many of us can appreciate the value of small-scale, local nature observations. In this reflection on the work that led to “Phenological mismatch with trees reduces wildflower carbon budgets,” I review the literature that corroborated and contradicted our hypotheses over the last two and a half years. I also contrast the experience of writing our paper as a parent and early career researcher — including working on revisions during newborn naptime at the end of parental leave — with the experience of parenting during the pandemic. We often finish a paper and then move on, maybe checking its citation score on google scholar without digging into the new spaces where our names have taken root in other texts. This opportunity to revisit phenological mismatch and trace its path and citations in the field of plant ecology is a chance to slow down, notice the budburst of an idea, and attend to our place in the scientific community. *from Ada Limon’s poem Instructions on Not Giving Up
