Project Echoes and My Problem with Trees!

Currently fighting against a few problems with the level. The alpha planes are looking a little off in my level. Currently I have these trees in the level, but I find they're looking very flat and with them being so low I'm not sure they work well.

Here's a video of some rough game-play with these trees:

Here's the other leaves I've made which would relay less on opacity, and have more possibility for shape. I am also wondering if they would improve my FPS in Unity as they're would be less alphas to calculate.

Here's video of how it would look in game-play:

I feel that although the trees with the giant leaves are a better design, that they aren't right for this environment. Feedback from the team has confirmed this, so I'm looking at ways to make my trees less obviously game-y. I'm thinking if I move the leaves up higher that this would help as they'd always be further away and it'd be easier to dress the trees for viewing from below.