>>1016985
Default method I use to scatter tree/grass/whatever objects is make a particle system on the ground, set to hair, set render to the object, faff around with settings until it looks right. When its in path mode the hairs are aligned to normals, the object Im instancing is vertical, but then they appear 90 degrees to the normal and I've got to rotate the mesh in edit mode like this to get it right if I want the phase randomization to be rotating on the Z, no matter what orientation axis is in the particle settings. Weird little quirk Im curious about. Thinking it just assumes X+ on the object should be aligned to the normal because this isn't just a foliage tool, but sort of odd considering Blender is in the Z up camp.