Botanical name Dysoxylum fraserianum
A common name Rosewood
Seedling
Rosewood can be rather slow to leave the seedling stage, in good conditions it might take 2 or 3 years, this one still has a way to go. They only seem to accelerate after they get to about .5 of a meter tall, after that they grow with reasonable speed.
Young plant
Juvenile
Reasonably mature
Sassafras
The seedling below is just starting on the slightly faster growth phase. Under the right hand side compound leaf you might also notice the top soil on this hill side is a bit gravelly, not much soil actually.
This one is about 4 to 4.5 metres tall, at head hight it is "just a stick". It is growing faster now I have killed off the Small Leaf Privett that was shading it over head.
I haven't found a mature Rosewood on Sassafras yet, they can't be too far away because in places we have lots of seedlings.
Trunk detail on a Dysoxylum fraserianum in a different location, fairly sunny spot by comparison, it might be a bit younger and is about a metre shorter but stouter. This trunk is about 7cm across.
Leaves from the sapling above, from a conveniently low branch. Notice the pinnae do not always have a terminal leaflet, as is the case with the larger seedling above and also on the main section of the sapling above. This sapling is about 5 years old, since I found it slightly smaller than the size of the smallest seedling above. Dysoxylum fraserianum are easy to see as seedlings.
You can see I use a tripod, in almost every location I shoot there is not enough light to shoot hand held, a flash will wash out the images or create reflections. I've tried a monopod as well, still couldn't always hold it still enough for a kerlickkkk length exposure. In terms of carrying and setting up, I treat it like a monopod because over 90% of photos are on sloping ground, in around 90% of photos I only ever adjust one leg, the downhill leg.