In 1993, we published a paper in Development detailing the anatomical structure of the Arabidopsis root. The paper described how root growth was maintained by the precisely tuned activity of a small set of ‘initials’, which acted as the source of dividing and differentiating cells, and how these stem cell-like cells surrounded a few infrequently dividing cells. This work underpinned subsequent research on root developmental biology and sparked a detailed molecular analysis of how stem cell groups are positioned and maintained in plants.