The formation of Cube oriented elements in plane strain compressed aluminium has been studied by EBSD for both hot and cold deformations. By following the orientation changes of the same set of 176 grains deformed at 400 °C up to a strain of 1.2 using a split sample, it is shown that about 15% of the grains can break up into several regions of very different orientations, characterized by very large orientation gradients. In particular those grains oriented within about 30° of Cube develop Cube oriented zones in contact with other rolling texture components. Finite element crystal plasticity simulations confirm this mechanism of creation of Cube by plastic deformation. The same type of microstructure can also be observed after heavy cold rolling (strain of 2.3), but at a scale that is much finer by at least an order of magnitude. In this case the micron-sized Cube fragments are located along many grain boundaries or in some particular grains. When the cold deformed sample is annealed, EBSD observations of the same areas reveal that the intergranular Cube fragments are very efficient recrystallization nucleation sites, apparently since they possess mobile high angle boundaries with the local environment.