A Smithsonian magazine special report|Raging bushfires. Devastated wildlife. And the compassionate souls who went to the rescueA young koala recovers at the wildlife park hospital.I ​arrived on Kangaroo Island bracing myself for the sight of acres of blackened trees and white ash, but I had not expected the parasitic bright green vines wrapped around almost every charred trunk, glowing phosphorescent in the sunlight. This was no parasite, I learned. It was epicormic growth, bursting directly from the burnt trunks themselves, a desperate bid for photosynthesis in the absence of a leaf...…A Smithsonian magazine special report|Raging bushfires. Devastated wildlife. And the compassionate souls who went to the rescueA young koala recovers at the wildlife park hospital.I ​arrived on Kangaroo Island bracing myself for the sight of acres of blackened trees and white ash, but I had not expected the parasitic bright green vines wrapped around almost every charred trunk, glowing phosphorescent in the sunlight. This was no parasite, I learned. It was epicormic growth, bursting directly from the burnt trunks themselves, a desperate bid for photosynthesis in the absence of a leaf...WW…