The application of instanced clones represents a powerful technique for reducing the time and space requirements of the storage and visualization of large populations of similar objects. This paper presents the results of several perceptual experiments into the application of cloning to plant populations, within the context of a project to explore the use of resource-acquisition based techniques to model plant distributions. The perceptive effects of clone rotation on human subjects will be explored, with the goal of stratifying clone rotations and minimizing their detection. The perceptual effects of clone number, plant species heterogeneity and appearance will also be explored.