Plants possess a remarkable capacity to initiate, maintain, and regenerate stem cells. While perpetual stem cells such as shoot and root meristems generate above- and below-ground plant bodies, respectively, the regeneration of entire organs and tissues is also known to occur widely from other somatic and gametic plant cells. Another fascinating group of plant cells with stem cell-like ability are meristemoids, which are transient stem cells that gives rise to stomata, with recent studies revealing the intricate relationship between cell cycle and fate specification during this pivotal cellular stage. In this special issue of Plant and Cell Physiology, organised by Makoto Hayashi (RIKEN, Japan), Ari Pekka Mähönen (Univ. Helsinki, Finland), Hitoshi Sakakibara (Nagoya Univ. Japan), Keiko Torii (UT Austin, USA), and Masaaki Umeda (NAIST, Japan), recent studies emerging from the exciting field of plant stem cell research are highlighted (for more details, see introduction by Hayashi et al. on pp 271-273).