As sessile organisms, terrestrial plants are exposed to all extremes of local conditions throughout all stages of their life-history, often resulting in episodes of strong selection. This sessile nature also makes them particularly amenable to reciprocal transplant and common garden experiments – the basic tools for assessing local adaptation. Thus it is not surprising that the first studies of natural variation in adaptive traits began with plants (over 250 years ago!). Since then hundreds of studies have found evidence for local adaptation in plants.