
I compared two species of gum trees in an area of forest that had a prescribed fuel-reduction burn about 12 months ago. These gums almost always survive fire and it was interesting to look at the differences in the post-burn growth of two trees side-by-side.
I felt that the exercise was incomplete until I went home to look up which species these were. (There are 29 species of Eucalypt in Tasmania where I live.) Knowing which species I was comparing somehow made the observation seem more satisfying for me.
I thought about comparing a third species, but it wasn't a gum, it was
Banksia, which I decided was too different for this comparison. But I started to look at the tree more closely anyways as they were all dead, none survived the fire. They need fire to open the large hard seed cones, which had me ready to start drawing again and making different observations. So this very focused, close-up exercise was interesting for me.