It would be easy to assume that with the characteristics laid out in part 1 of this blog, that Arabidopsis was always an obvious choice as a model organism, however its story is as tangled and complex as the bed of weeds it was plucked from.

Depending on the type of person you are, if someone described you as having “no particular virtues or uses” it may make you pretty determined to prove that person wrong and become unequivocally useful.