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"I realized there was a heavy-duty change coming in biology, and I could write a really compelling novel about catastrophic evolution, punctuated equilibrium."
- Greg Bear

Treeship  
  A single, enormous tree grown as a spacecraft.  

The Yggdrasill, one of only five treeships in existence, is used to take the pilgrims to Hyperion.

The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship as he closed for rendezvous, the treeship's details blurred by the redundant machine and erg-generated containment fields which surrounded it like a spherical mist, but its leafy bulk clearly ablaze with thousands of lights which shone softly through leaves and thin-walled environment pods, or along countless platforms, bridges command decks, stairways and bowers. Around the base of the treeship, engineering and cargo spheres clustered like oversized galls while blue and violet streamers trailed behind like ten kilometer-long roots...

The Consul paused, moved to the edge of the walkway, and took a quick step back. It was at least six hundred meters down - down being created by the one-sixth standard gravity being generated by the singularities imprisoned at the base of the tree ...

A Templar treeship normally carried between two and five thousand passengers; it was easily the most desirable way to travel between the stars.

Technovelgy from Hyperion, by Dan Simmons.
Published by Doubleday in 1989
Additional resources -

Compare to the house trees from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Hyperion
  More Ideas and Technology by Dan Simmons
  Tech news articles related to Hyperion
  Tech news articles related to works by Dan Simmons

Treeship-related news articles:
  - Tooth Enamel Secret To Stronger Aircraft
  - Computational Wood: Grow Circuits In Living Trees
  - Japan's LignoSat Space Wood Satellite And Dan Simmons' Treeship

Articles related to Spacecraft
China Wants To Build Mega Space Ships
Dream Of Building Your Own Rocket?
Used Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Will Fly Again
Laser-Powered Spacecraft To Explore The Solar System

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