Star formation rate (SFR, orange) and instantaneous SFE (є_★(t) = M_★(t)/M_MC, red), as a function of time (t) for the MC from D20. At the end of the simulation, the total mass in stars is M_★ = 7.4 × 10⁴ M_⊙. The circles mark the time corresponding to the “reference” snapshot (as defined in Sect. 3), at t ≃ 1.1 Myr. The dashed vertical line indicates the moment when the MC in D20 starts to photo-evaporate. The shaded area highlights the period when the cloud is dispersed according to the radiation–pressure model from S20 (cf. Sect. 2.3.) .