<p>Most studies conducted under field conditions commonly contain unusual or deviant observations because of data variability usually driven by environmental stressors. However, due to low replication in most plant physiological studies, these observations are not considered essential to understand plant stress responses. By exploring the hormonal response of the native Mediterranean shrub <i>Cistus albidus</i> to a heat wave occurring in the Mediterranean during the summer of 2023, we found five biological outliers with extraordinarily elevated endogenous concentrations of the bioactive jasmonate, jasmonoyl-isoleucine. Outliers were identified by calculating the median and the interquartile range of the population, with outliers being found beyond the lower and upper boundaries denoting the first (Q1) and third (Q3) quartiles in data distribution. By following the behavior of these outliers during recovery from drought stress in the following months, we observed a differential resilience response in these individuals compared to the rest of the population. Despite outliers (showing sixfold higher jasmonoyl-isoleucine contents during the heat wave) did not exhibit enhanced stress tolerance, they showed a completely differential recovery response during autumn, which was characterized by reduced leaf growth, suggesting a priming effect for future stress acclimation, so that exposure to heat stress improved subsequent plant stress response. Reduced leaf growth during recovery from summer stress may well respond to a more conservative strategy to prevent water loss during subsequent water deficits. These findings underscore the importance of specifically using biological hormonal outliers in ecophysiological studies for a comprehensive understanding of plant stress responses.</p>