Resurrection plants are a perennial fascination to botanists. The transformation, within a few hours (or even minutes) of supplying them with water, from a plant that has all the appearances of being dead – dry, brown, crisp and shrivelled – to a plant that is obviously living and functioning – turgid, green, pliable and growing – suggests the miraculous. Studies of the complex processes of restoration and repair have been made on a number of resurrection plants, and at many levels of organization from molecules through membranes, organelles and cells to the whole plant (Gaff, 1989). The woody South African shrub Myrothamnus is the most extreme example of such plants, in that it has the highest level of organization to be repaired. It is transformed from lifeless-looking sticks with a water content below 5% to a flourishing bush in a day after its roots receive water. Two papers in this issue from Ulrich Zimmermann's group in Würzburg concentrate on the restoration of the functioning hydraulic systems of the stems (see pp. 221–238, and 239–255).