Karri

No one photographs Karri, and they have made their peace with it. The karri is among the tallest eucalypts in Australia — a pale-barked giant rising a hundred meters over the southern forests — but the tourists all point their cameras at the redwoods and the sequoias, and Karri stands unphotographed in the good light, unbothered. "Fame," they say, "is a Skyreach disease. I have the wind." And the wind they have: their crown moves like water, their smooth bark sheds in ribbons, and on the rare days the light hits right, the whole tree glows cream and gold with nobody watching. A young photographer finally looked up last spring and wept at the viewfinder. Karri's only comment: "Took you long enough." The faction is learning, slowly, that the tallest tree in the room is not always the one being measured.