Temporal dynamics of water relations during a drought and recovery experiment conducted on potted seedlings (L. decidua, P. sylvestris) under controlled conditions. Depicted are water potential (⁠|$\psi $|⁠), tree water deficit (TWD) and soil water content (SWC) as treatment means |$\pm $| SE. The two drought phases are marked as D1 and D2, and the recovery phases are illustrated with a blue background. In the final recovery phase, the drought treatment was split equally and only drought–recovery seedlings were re-watered, while drought–lethal trees were fully dehydrated.