I've been trying to understand how it works, it looks like a lot of the math deals more with rotation and scaling. It appears there is a function for every object variation, and it looks like each one sets its own color, so I think you could change the colors of individual objects to see what they actually render. The object placement is too perfect, I'm betting the individual objects have a number of predefined places where other object would naturally be in relation, and then the the presence or variation of the object is randomized - and all the more impressive if something that simple yields such great results. I could just watch this scroll by for hours - nice alternative to watching fish tank videos while coding.
Does not seem too perfect to me. I frequently came across the tiny trees placed in the water near the shore and also on the rock formations, something I have yet to have seen in the real world.
It’s actually very common - trees will take root in the slightest crack or depression, can even cause large boulders to split over over time. Load up duck duck go and do an image search for “trees in rocks” and there are plenty of examples.