Individual species of very different plant families produce special indole-derived defense compounds called benzoxazinoids. However, the biosynthetic pathway of these compounds was so far only known for grasses such as maize. A team has now been able to show, by studying two distantly related plant species, the golden dead-nettle and zebra plant, that completely different enzymes are responsible for the formation of these special defense compounds. Hence, plants evolved the biosynthetic pathway for the same compounds several times independently.