{{Alien_Race|
image=[[Image:alien_trees.jpg]]
|galaxy=Unknown
|star_system=Unknown
|planet=Unknown
|physical_characteristics= Humanoid-tree like
|skin_colour= Brown
|debut=Alpha Flight #47 vol. 1
|}}

==History==
The exact location of origin and history of this race are unknown. It is also unclear as to what method of travel the creatures use to move from planet to planet or how many pods (their initial physiological phase) move together at one time, though at least several dozen landed in the same area during their first recorded encounter on Earth.

This encounter took place when an alien [[seed-pod]] fell from space into [[Victory Stadium]] where the Little League team of the [[Hayboro Hawks]] were locked in a ninth inning tie with the [[Calgary Chinooks]] for the division title in the All-Canada Junior League playoffs of 1987. [[Mayhew Tommy| Tommy Mayhew]] of the Hawks was running for a pop fly, only to catch the falling seed in his glove instead. The impact of the seed caused it to rupture, and it opened up and took control of Tommy, psychically ordering him to leave the game and walk towards nearby woods, which resembled its original home. The alien substance within the pod soon began to spread across the boy's entire body until it was completely covered, during which time a parasitic transformation occurred.

The coach of the Hawks was [[McNeil Ramsey| Ramsey McNeil]], [[Guardian II| Heather Hudson's]] father. He called his daughter for aid when several boys from his team began disappearing. Hudson, who had been ostracized by her family for her relationship with the original [[Guardian I|Guardian]] reluctantly agreed to aid in the investigation, but as she and her father split up to cover more ground, McNeil unwittingly stumbled upon some opened tree-pods which immediately took over his body. Once the aliens finally felt their numbers were sufficient, they gathered forces to overwhelm the town's population.

As they moved in for the attack, they were confronted by Hudson (who had now assumed her Vindicator role); the aliens spoke with the distorted voices of those whom they had possessed in order to hold them hostage by falsely claiming that any attack would harm the host body. However, once Hudson began to attack, burning the aliens with her plasma blasts, they started to speak in their own voices. She then deduced that the children and her father were still alive inside; just as the pods had encased the seeds, the hard bark of the alien exterior had encased the aliens' hosts, protecting them while leaving the aliens themselves at the mercy of Vindicator's blasts.

As Hudson burnt away the bark, the aliens were exposed to Earth's unfamiliar environment and died. The former hosts emerged from the remains of the Tree creatures that had formed around them, basically unharmed except for a few minor burns. Hudson, now back in the good graces of her family after saving their lives, destroyed all the seeds except for one, which remained hidden in the backyard of the McNeil household where it waits for something to penetrate its hard outer shell and once again unleash the Tree-alien menace on Earth.

==Powers/Abilities==

The Tree alien is a parasitic being which seeks to inhabit the living body of a native organism of whichever planet it migrates (or drifts) to in order to gain the natural immunity that organism has built up over time to the biological hazards of its particular environment. It does so by plugging into the nervous system and feeding off the host's arteries, gradually taking over its body and mind. The Tree beings form a type of psychic bond with their hosts which allows them not only to dictate the host's actions but also access their thoughts and memories as well as mimic their voices and personalities. The Tree race also acts as a collective consciousness, able to communicate psionically with other Tree-inhabited host bodies.

When the Tree aliens inhabited human hosts, they exhibited superhuman strength and psychic abilities, the exact specifications of which are unknown. It is presumed that the Tree alien can transform whatever its host happens to be into a Tree/Host hybrid, assuming that the host's nervous and circulatory system are enough to sustain the parasitic metamorphosis.