fwiw. The leaves were made by parenting tris to an emmiter (instead of dupliverting to branches). Maybe someone will find the method useful. blend included.
[edit]Working with the technique I’ve since changed the method from the crossed card to a single quad ‘Plane’ card. Point the flat side to the camera or light and add a material. I’ve also changed the basic material from Voronoi to Musgrave with Multifractal Voronoi F1 as it makes the leave a little pointed. 
[/edit]
Much more versatile since you can use IPO’s for rotation. But what’s a tree doing growing in the middle of Old Trafford?
%<
Old who? Quick Google turns up: a foggy place to play football?
I imagine a clever individual could even manage leaves falling and blowing in the Autumn.
umm. . . . in the shadow of the tree . . . there is a group of leaves whose shadows don’t connect with the tree. They kinda stick out.
Yes, none of the leave are actually connected. The particles can be adjusted to any density so that the leave are all in contact. Also the particles can be adjusted to flatten out, droop down or, well whatever particles can do. The initial speed from the projector is adjustable too including noise on the eighth channel.
Think of a sketch artist quickly dabbing ink to make a leaf. She isn’t necessarily concerned with absolute conformity to reality. And for the sake of speed the method is highly desirable. Here’s a nice example from a commercial render. I suspect these things are going unnoticed by the vast majority, but if you look closely at the bush on the left you see a similar effect. 
Another example of shaped bushes
And here’s a pic of my girlfriend (kidding (it’s only a cartoon))
Here’s the site . . .
http://www.dnahelix.com/jimmy/
