There is a tree in lutruwita that doesn’t mind the cold.
Decidious beech, Nothofagus gunnii. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Apr 2026.
Some might insist that it is a cursed bush that goes by the name of tanglefoot. Others might declare it by its latin name: nothofagus gunnii. The common name for this tree is deciduous beech, or simply: fagus. The palawa name is tuyali.
The thing about tuyali is that each year, it turns. It drops its leaves for the winter. This is the tree’s adaptation to cold. But before this happens, the leaves turn magical colours as the leaves all slowly die and fall off the tree. From bright green to light yellow, to deep orange, then eventually brown. The leaves put on a theatrical display, then fall off the tree and accumulate in deep layers around the fagus groves.
Fagus, or tanglefoot. It started turning a little later this year. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Apr 2026.
This tree doesn’t just grow in exposed areas, but also in rainforest. In the valley where it is sheltered, the tree may grow quite tall, but the myrtles and king billies still tower over them. So in the dim light of a rainforest understorey, the leaves have to grow bigger and flatter to obtain enough sunlight to grow and thrive. These leaves can be at least three times larger than the leaves that grow on trees that are in more exposed areas. In the rainforest, the leaves can be completely flat, with barely any grooves in them.
Rainforest light scene, pandanni protagonist. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, April 2026.
At higher altitudes and exposed to the wind, tiyuratina, the leaves get smaller and more crinkled, down as small as as person’s pinky nail. In exposed areas like mountain cols, and on tops of boulders, the tree may only come up to a person’s knees, and grow sideways for some distance, always away from the west and south-west, away from the prevailing winds of lutruwita. Up there where the tree is exposed to snow, ice, and a bitter wind, its leaves have shriveled up, and also have deeper groves in them. This must be to protect the leaf from getting damaged when it becomes frozen.
Bonzai beech. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Apr 2026.
Even at knee height though, fagus is best appreciated from a safe distance. It is most advisable not to walk through a thicket of fagus. There is a reason its old name is tanglefoot.
-A.S. 9/5/2026