The article discusses plant science research by V. Wahl et al. within the issue. Wahl and colleagues discovered a sugar metabolite, called trehalose-6- phosphate (T6P), linking nutrient availability in plants to the control of flowering using the model flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Topics include the evolution of flowering plants, or angiosperms, and their acceleration approximately 100 million years ago with the development of flowers and the recruitment of animals to help distribute pollen and seeds, the link between a plant's metabolic status and its developmental decision to flower through T6P, and what the role of T6P tells scientists about the possibility of an evolutionarily conserved and ancient function in plants' developmental transitions.