Elderoot

One of the strangest life forms the galaxy has ever known, the ancient Nexus oak called Elderoot is a fully sentient, extremely long-lived tree who has seen thousands of years of history on the planet. Elderoot survived the disappearance of the Eldan, but a recent infestations of terminites in his root system threatens to end his centuries of deep contemplation about the mysteries of the universe. The Aurin of Arboria believe Elderoot's home grove is a sacred site on their new homeworld, and have named the surrounding area after Queen Myala Everstar.

The Elderoot Initiative
The Eldan's Elderoot Initiative was an early experiment in creating sentient life from nonsentient life - in other words, giving primitive animal sentience to a plant, in this case a large tree. The Eldan learned that flooding a large enough vascular network like circulatory system of this tree generated a sentient neural network that soon became self-sustaining without sacrificing a long lifespan. It is unknown why the experiment appears to have been abandoned, and Elderoot himself is unable to say due to a parasitic infection in his roots. Whatever the reason, it appears that once he gained sentience the great tree was left to develop on his own.