We consider the recently introduced model of \emph{low ply graph drawing}, in
which the ply-disks of the vertices do not have many common overlaps, which
results in a good distribution of the vertices in the plane. The
\emph{ply-disk} of a vertex in a straight-line drawing is the disk centered at
it whose radius is half the length of its longest incident edge. The largest
number of ply-disks having a common overlap is called the \emph{ply-number} of
the drawing.
We focus on trees. We first consider drawings of trees with constant
ply-number, proving that they may require exponential area, even for stars, and
that they may not even exist for bounded-degree trees. Then, we turn our
attention to drawings with logarithmic ply-number and show that trees with
maximum degree 6 always admit such drawings in polynomial area.Comment: This is a complete access version of a paper that will appear in the
proceedings of GD201
