The response of plants to cold exposure provides them with a way to align their flowering in spring. Because daily temperatures fluctuate, long-term rather than short-term cold is the key signal required for a flowering cue; prolonged cold followed by warmer weather provides an indication that winter has ended, bringing the advent of spring and flowering time. Zhao etal. conducted experiments to examine the degradation rate of NTL8, and found that it was stable in warm and cold conditions. ...a temperature-dependent change in the degradation rate could not be the reason NTL8 accumulates slowly. ...during cold weather, NTL8 levels in cells would be expected to increase gradually (Fig. 1).