@chaseawaythedark: I put it down to the subtropical biome: it's familiar enough to European flora to be recognizable, but different enough to give it that fantasy-exotic feel. I don't know if it was intentionally scouted or Jackson playing to the home country, but needless to say NuZee has become practically synonymous with the Middle-earth aesthetic.
Party Tree by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)
Hobbiton movie set, Waikato, New Zealand. Why does the tree look different between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? The canonical answer is in the original books, after Saruman's defeat at Isengard he takes over the Shire and the tree is cut down; Sam later restores it with a mallorn seed from Galadriel. The practical answer is much of the original landscape used for the set was marsh, and after draining it this face of the tree withered.
Original photo taken May 2014. Submitted to DeviantArt September 2015.
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303d10h ago
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It fascinates me that New Zealand happened to have everything the trilogy needed.