This is an important forum article highlighting the lack of awareness into plant physiology in global soil carbon research. This issue is highly relevant as much of soil carbon cycling is driven by plant activity, in particular in the rhizosphere or related to plant symbionts. Their results are clear—the large majority of soil carbon studies do not include plant physiology even though a plant physiological perspective could provide novel or more mechanistic insights on soil carbon processes and could inform a new direction in soil carbon modelling.