group_by missing items

I use the acts_as_tree plugin, and I try to display a list of the elements w group_by

in my controller ...     companies = Company.find :all, conditions => Company.visible_by (User.current), :include => :parent     respond_to do |format|       format.html {         @company_tree = companies.group_by {|p| p.parent || p}       }

I have the company ids : [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] with the following tree structure : 1 children ->[ 2 , 3] 2 -> children [4, 5, 6] and 3 has no child

the companies.group by gives me correctly an Hash with [key company 1 -> value [company 2, company 3] key company 2 -> value [company 4, company 5, company 6] ]

but no key company 3 ... is it because the group is empty (no child) ... how can I get the key company 2, with an empty array as value ? is it possible ?

thanks for your help