Murder Tree

General Info
No, its not a really dangerous tree. The murder tree is a spooky looking tree with leaves that appear to glow with red light, and a gray tree trunk. This gives them a horrorific appeareance and are sometimes thought to be dangerous. In many vortexian urban legends and talltales, these trees are described as sinister works of the devil, threatening anyone who comes too close. In reality, they are harmless. In fact, they even produce a delectible fruit known as the "blood fruit", named after its blood-red color, but those that eat it say it is actually delicious.

Murder trees also have an impressive lifespan, with each tree being known to have been surviving over 30 million years, only to lose to vortexians in life expectancy.

Beginning
Murder Trees are one of the oldest species of trees on Vortex, beginning at almost the same time Vortexians themselves began. These trees one day branched off from another form of tree on planet Vortex. The first generation of these trees were on Vortexia. These trees, being resiliant coniferous trees, capable of surviving strong winds, intense heat and cold and long periods of drought, made them quite durable. They began spreading across planet Vortex as a result through seeds. As mammals and the wind both carried the seeds to locations around the planet, the trees began ruling unchecked.

Multi-planetary Species
Murder trees were the first plant species to become multi-planetary. No, not the Xaviec trees. These were the first! After hitching a ride via seeds on vortexians starships, they eventually got into the soil of worlds such as Lininx, Mortexia, Matthauw-1b, and many, many more worlds. These trees are now common throughout the entire Vortexian galaxy as long as the conditions are good enough for the tree. That is, only for a while of course.

Disaster
The trees were fine on other worlds until things took an unexpected turn. On Mortexia during a large outbreak of a virus known as Tundrola, a few tundrola viruses mutated and formed a new virus: Marismothic Plague. This killed ALL the murder trees on Mortexia, and somehow they managed to reach 2 other exoplanets. As a result, the trees now only remain on a few worlds: Vortex, Supervortex, Lininx, and Matthauw-1b. However, on the worlds that the trees died out, the Marismothic plague also died out as it had no more hosts to infect.

Today
Murder trees today are somewhat common trees on planet vortex and are a source of delicious foods. You can find them on numerous islands, though the conditions mustn't be too harsh or they wont survive (examples include arid biomes, areas constantly hit by powerful storms, beaches, radioactive environments, etc). The trees are also the national tree of Tornado Alley Island.

Trivia

 * As I have said repeatedly by this point, they aren't dangerous, they have an edible and very delicious fruit
 * National tree of Tornado Alley Island
 * Inspired multiple stories written by Vortexians
 * The name originates from a story of a vortexian child who was murdered right next to one of these trees
 * The tree gets its red color from the red pigment in it's clorophyl, which is more effective as the red light can travel longer and lasts up until far after sundown