This question recently came up during edits for my upcoming release, another book set in the fascinating world of Palude.
Palude is dominated by carnivorous tree swamps, and these ‘wyann’ trees are gargantuan. Think giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) but with tentacle-like roots trying to stab anything that passes. Giant redwoods can grow up to 100m high, and if you were at the top of one, or even halfway up, your view of the ground would be understandably obscured and imprecise.
So what about my wyann trees?
While I have visited the giant redwoods of California, I didn’t climb one. That visit was also over twenty years ago!
So, to understand the perspective of being in the branches of an extremely tall tree for my book, I popped over to Singapore to experience the ‘supertrees’ at Gardens by the Bay.
They’re not actual trees, but tree-like structures covered in sustainable vertical gardens. Among them, the gardens feature over 162,900 different plants and 200 species!
Visitors can walk between the tallest trees via the Supertree Observatory walkway.
The tallest tree in the grove is about 50 metres high (about the height of a 16-storey building), so being on the walkway was at least comparable to being in the lower branches of a wyann tree.
And yes, the ground was indeed far below, prompting the occasional visitor to grip tightly onto the sturdy yellow handrail!
But I could see further than I thought, and more than I thought. No details, but enough to make out distinct impressions, colours and shapes.
Everything changed at night of course, when the trees lit up and the Supertree Grove offered a free nightly ‘Garden Rhapsody’ light show.
Still, the evening bushes and lawns below were the same as in any garden – dark with silent creatures rustling, creating a suitably ominous atmosphere to act as inspiration for my book.
So, as soon as I was back at my editing desk, I made sure my characters’ visions across Palude matched my own real-life experiences in the trees – sticking to impressions rather than details, shapes and colours rather than decisive features, and suitably ominous at night…
I hope you enjoy the experience when you read it!
Thank you, Singapore!
