Not a Normal Maple Tree - How to Bury Your Dead When the Universe Ends
(a caption from Deadlymelodic's website about the Eden Tree)
The Eden Tree is something from the movie I think about a lot. It contributes many fertile ideas about what humanity encountered on their voyage through the stars. The size of the tree in the flashbacks is surprising, as is the fact that it was thriving in space.
Deadlymelodic, the online alias of Molly Brown, has some amazing concept art of the tree uploaded to her website. She did such fabulous work for the film as a concept artist, designer, and modeler.
The film makes it clear that the tree is not a normal size. The leaves in the concept art are unusual, too.
I would say these are definitely not maple leaves or, really, any kind of leaf that is instantly recognizable. And I think that's the point. This is a tree in space, on a space station, and canonically fed by dead bodies. And I know the first thing people think of in this instance might be burying the whole body, but a lot of sacred groves on Earth had been part of cremation ceremonies.
A massive space station burning whatever kind of fuel for power, or even just using heat sources of some kind to cook food, would have the means to incinerate a body. Ash is excellent for soil in the right measurements and in proportion with other additives. So, while I have seen people poo-poo the idea that bodies were used to feed the tree on Eden, I think the reason why these people are doing that is because they are being unfortunately literal about bodies becoming the soil, instead of thinking like a gardener.
And, actually, here on Earth in C.E. 2026, there is a movement involving Natural Organic Reduction (N.O.I.) that helps convert human remains into nutrient-rich material that could nourish soil. For members of certain religions who have burial built into their religion, but who have had to adapt for reasons including restrictions from local and regional laws, N.O.I. becoming legal in certain areas is allowing them to return to their traditional ceremonies.
Who is to say that a similar process couldn't have been employed on Eden (if we are insisting on making our space tree function in a logical way)?
Add on to that the fact that this is very likely not a tree from Earth and the sky's the limit. An interesting thing about plants and trees is that humans have always manipulated them to create new varieties. Broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts all have the same origin in a wild mustard plant, for example. They were cultivated over time to become different plants. The tree on Eden could have been crossbred with other trees over time to help it survive in space. Wouldn't it be neat if it was a wild, last-gasp attempt by a space-faring group to create resources to help them survive in adversity? They perhaps found unique soil, minerals, or organic growths in space, and were able to utilize them in making common varieties of trees on Earth hearty in the unfriendly environs of space.
There's modern research about growing things from Earth with Martian soil that is really fascinating.
Molly Brown has a little tidbit on her website about the mutated Eden Tree. The dead splitting from the tree was not meant to be literal, but more as a visual representation of both Simon's broken psyche, and the concept of the Eden belief that the bodies become the soil appearing to him in visions at its most extreme and horrible. I do love the idea of both the Eden Tree and the blood eel as gestalt entities: The eel had all those extra limbs, and the mutated Eden tree in Molly Brown's concept art has just...so many whole bodies emerging from the bark. Just...oh so many. Eek.
What striking and disturbing imagery! Again: the reaching arms becoming tree limbs is so similar to the limbs of the blood eel.
Tying up all my points here, I'm all onboard with embracing the sci-fi of this film. The Eden Tree doesn't have to be limited to trees that exist now in recognizable forms that we can apply current science to. The movie is dreamlike and painted large in grungy futuristic brush strokes. In the spirit of the movie, I like to think of this tree as nothing like a maple or spruce. It's a towering mutant of a tree growing in adversity on a space station orbiting around the vast emptiness where Mars once was, and the central religious symbol of a desperate human diaspora struggling on after the universe ends.
Of course, it's dead by the time the movie starts, but that seed in the pendant Simon finds sprouts like nothing else once Simon dies and the blood floods in. It grows so fast and so violently, it's impossible to think of it as just a tree that has to follow our understanding of trees on Earth. This thing is special.
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