There were many types of distress leaves. There were maple leaves, gingko leaves, and so on, but pine needle leaves were the most popular type.
Pine needle leaves were small in size and convenient to bring along. A tiny bamboo tube could contain numerous pine needle leaves. Certain features of pine trees could be found in pine needle leaves as well.
Distress leaves were a product invented by wood elementalists. Wood elementalists felt that trees could communicate with each other, and this logic formed the basis for message trees. However, message trees could not be found in the wild.
Hence, the elementalists invented a kind of leaves that could transmit messages through the trees in the wild.
Unlike message trees, the amount of messages that distress leaves could transmit was very limited. However, they were still able to make distress calls. There must be plants or trees nearby for distress leaves to work, so they could not be used in places like deserts or oceans.
