[claudeganon]

Illustration, by its nature, has the ability to schematize and make diagrammatic our experience of the world on multiple, concurrent levels, in an image or set of images. Using it, you can essentially overlay information about what we understand about a given object not present in a photograph of a said object.

The most obvious example that comes to mind for botanical illustration is the use of cross sections to display the various structures and mechanisms of a plant in a way that is readily interpretable.