 At the main campus of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Ultuna, one may still see a long row of birch trees of provenances ranging from Scania to Lappland, planted by Turesson.Spectacularly, bud burst in spring starts in the end of the southern provenances and proceeds 'northwards', while autumn leaf colouring and senescence starts in the northern provenances and proceeds 'southwards'.Thus, Turesson continues to remind SLU students that phenology has a genetic basis and that local adaption may be revealed in common garden experiments.