And now for something a little greener...

Yes, here are a variety of photos, and a few notes regarding them where worthwhile, of some of the growing pile of raw materials for building the islands.

The above three photos are of the trees for Mark's Mangrove Swamp (after my good friend, the late Tony Mark) with some figures in the first photo for size comparison.  The mat is a test bed for various techniques when painting the Great Canvas.  The last picture shows the source: Top Fin's Bonzai Tree.  But they just said mangrove to me when I saw them at the pet shop - I have eight so far but will probably add some more since they will be on at least two of the islands.  For those in the know, aquarium supplies are the tropical modelers best friend.

These two photos are of something I found this morning.  On a whim I walked into the small local pet shop to look for anything that might catch my eye.  Nothing did and I was on my way out the door when, hello, these popped into my vision.  They are for Betta tanks and referred to on the package as Papaya plants.  If I didn't already have a wealth of palm trees these would be a great start for scratch building some.   Seeing them next to 15 mm figures you can see they can be used in the larger scales as well.  Nice detail with the serrated leaves.  I think I'll use these as some sort of large tropical ferns.