The Bafforr trees, also known as Bafforrs, were a type of crystalline flora that originated on Ithor. Their distinctive feature was a blue, glassy outer layer (which would rapidly turn black after the plant died) and foliage of a black hue. While individual Bafforrs lacked significant intelligence, groups of them could establish communication through their interconnected root systems, leading to enhanced cognitive abilities. A collective of seven Bafforrs was capable of achieving full sentience, and entire Bafforr forests possessed a level of wisdom surpassing that of any other being known to the Ithorians. Communication among Bafforrs occurred via a form of telepathy. The leaves of the Bafforr tree were a primary food source for imported reeks.
The trunks of bafforr trees were crystalline, exhibiting a bark texture smoother than glass. Their branches formed a dense, interlocking network. The color of bafforr trees was aquamarine, though they appeared paler in contrast to the surrounding Ithorian forests. At night, bafforr trees emitted a soft blue glow; this luminescence would fade to black upon the tree's death. Some bafforr trees also displayed black leaves. Young bafforr trees resembled inverted cones and exhibited a lighter shade of blue compared to their more mature counterparts. Bafforr trees were unable to survive being uprooted. Some bafforr trees had bark that shone black.
Bafforr trees demonstrated a collective form of sentience. Individual trees had limited intelligence, but as their roots intertwined, these individual intelligences merged, creating a group mind. As a result, the intelligence of the trees increased with the number of trees participating in the collective. Bafforr forests, therefore, varied from semi-sentient to fully sentient. This phenomenon bore resemblance to the bivalvic Knowledge Bank of the water-planet Dac, which comprised the combined brains of numerous individuals working together towards a shared objective. A minimum of seven bafforr trees was necessary to achieve true sentience. Below this threshold, a grove became confused and experienced memory loss.
The bafforr forests advocated for an ethical principle known as the "Law of Life," which stipulated that only non-sentient plants could be harvested, and even then, only if two plants were planted for each one destroyed during the harvest. The bafforr forests exercised benevolent governance over all other organisms within the forests, including flora such as the indyup tree, donar flower, and bull-fern, as well as fauna like the manollium bird, shamarok flitter, and the arrak snake. Bafforr forests also engaged in communication with the Ithorians; the Cathor Hills forest became a mentor and confidant to High Priest Momaw Nadon. When he made contact with the trunk of a bafforr tree grove, the smooth bark vibrated under his touch. The mind-touch of the bafforr grove filled the Ithorian with a pure and holy feeling, conceptualized by Nadon as if light entered every pore of his body. It was a soothing presence, evocative of great beauty, although through that presence, the Ithorian could discern dissatisfaction and other emotions. During communication between bafforr trees, their leaves trembled, emitting hissing sounds that formed words.
The Ithorians, a sentient, bipedal species also native to Ithor, held the bafforr forests in reverence. The development of repulsorlift technology enabled the Ithorians to retreat from the planet's surface, as they considered it sacrilegious to physically interact with the forest. However, some Ithorians defied this religious decree, believing that "Mother Jungle," a spiritual entity thought to embody Ithor's lush, tropical ecosystem, had beckoned them to reside on the planet's surface. These Ithorians became ecological priests, dedicated to the care of the bafforr forests. They were regarded as outcasts by the broader Ithorian society, which prohibited them from returning to the Ithorian Herdships.
During the Great Sith War, Mandalorian Wars, and Jedi Civil War, a substantial Galactic Republic fleet was stationed above Ithor. However, Sith saboteurs caused at least two Ithorian Herdships to crash into Ithor's jungles, prompting the Ithorians to reduce their involvement in the war efforts.
In 439 BBY, Ithorian scientists combined genes from bafforr trees with those of vesuvague trees and other species. The resulting hybrid, known as "Spore," inherited the collective sentience of the bafforr trees. However, unlike its benign predecessors, Spore was malevolent, driven by an insatiable desire to assimilate other beings into its collective mind. It achieved this by touching individuals with tentacle-like vines inherited from the vesuvague, a semi-sentient plant species in its own right. Through physical contact, Spore could possess bodies and extend tentacles from its victims to control even more individuals. Spore exhibited extreme virulence and rapidly spread across Ithor, seizing control of numerous beings. Some Ithorians speculated that it had the potential to control millions of individuals. Ultimately, with assistance from Jedi Knights, the Ithorians managed to counteract Spore's influence, although it took nearly 100 years to completely eradicate the bafforr derivative from Ithor. Spore was reduced to a minuscule sample and concealed within a tomb on an asteroid. There, deprived of oxygen and a host, it entered a dormant state. This tumultuous period became known as the Ithorian Spore crisis.
Years before the Battle of Yavin, the Galactic Empire became interested in the Ithorian expertise in cloning and genetic engineering. Imperial captain Alima of the Star Destroyer Conquest initiated a siege of the planet. He boarded the Tafanda Bay, the largest of Ithor's Herdships, and demanded the secrets of Ithorian technology from its High Priest, Momaw Nadon. Nadon initially refused, prompting Alima to order the partial incineration of one of Ithor's many sentient forests. This particular forest, known as the "Cathor Hills," was situated on a geographical feature of the same name, considered sacred by the Ithorians. Thousands of bafforr trees were killed as the large grove was partially incinerated by the Star Destroyer. The resulting large, dark, cylindrical, felled trunks remained for many years, resembling tubes of burned transparisteel. When Alima threatened to fire upon the Tafanda Bay again, Nadon felt compelled to surrender the secrets of Ithorian technology to the Empire. As a result of this action, Nadon was exiled from his family and homeworld, eventually settling on the desert planet Tatooine in the Outer Rim Territories, where he cultivated a number of bafforr trees. Nadon's wife, fearing further Imperial actions, also revealed the existence of Spore to the Empire in an attempt to prevent additional violence. Alima's act of violence motivated many Ithorians to secretly support the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Approximately ten months after the Battle of Yavin, the Ithorian Fandomar Nadon discovered two Human children, Tash and Zak Arranda, on Ithor's surface. She guided the Alderaanians to the oldest grove of Bafforr trees on the planet, a vast collection of densely packed trees. The grove briefly connected telepathically with Tash Arranda, who was Force-sensitive, when the girl reached out with her mind. Fandomar later escorted the Arrandas and their uncle Mammon Hoole, an anthropologist, to an asteroid mining colony in the Ithor system to acquire a supply of the mineral ethromite for their uncle's starship. The miners offered to provide the mineral in exchange for Hoole's expertise in deciphering an artifact they had unearthed within an asteroid.
By 11 ABY, the Cathor Hills forest had begun to recover, under the care of at least four Ithorian renegades, although numerous ruined trees remained. New Republic General Wedge Antilles took the Omwati scientist to observe the Cathor Hills, explaining the relationship between the Ithorians and bafforr trees to the sheltered woman. The following year, in 12 ABY, one of the five-yearly Ithorian Herd Meets took place on Ithor, with dozens of Herdships hovering only meters above the canopies of extensive bafforr forests. This meeting was disrupted by an attack by a crazed individual on New Republic guest of honor, Han Solo.
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Jacen Solo and Corran Horn discovered that the trees could be used against the vonduun crab armor worn by the Yuuzhan Vong, as the crab was allergic to the pollen produced by the tree. This reaction would cause the vonduun crab to swell, killing the crab and any who were wearing it. Almost all of the Bafforrs were destroyed when the Yuuzhan Vong bombarded Ithor to eradicate this deadly weapon. The New Republic ensured the survival of the species, however, as they had already transferred saplings to other planets such as Borleias.
However, the forces of the New Republic and then the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances were never able to replicate the bafforr pollen, and so it failed to deliver the military advantage that had been hoped for. It did, however, serve as the starting point for the development of Alpha Red. Following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Ithorians started to restore Ithor with traditional techniques, eschewing vongforming techniques.
Two groves of bafforr trees thrived on Tatooine under the care of exiled High Priest Momaw Nadon. The first grove, consisting of seven black-leaved bafforr trees, was located within one of the side domes of Nadon's Mos Eisley home. In 0 BBY, Alima was dispatched to Tatooine to locate two escaped droids. Nadon orchestrated a scheme involving a friend who would sell information to Alima's forces, implicating Nadon with the Rebel Alliance, hoping to retaliate against the Human for his actions over Ithor. The bafforr grove within Nadon's home refused to sanction Nadon's plan, warning that it would be unable to tolerate Nadon's touch if he were to arrange Alima's murder. Shortly after this conversation concluded, Alima entered Nadon's home and confronted the Ithorian. Dismissing Nadon's capacity to harm him, Alima shot one of the bafforr trees, shattering its trunk. He then threatened to brutally kill all of Nadon's remaining semi- and sentient plants if the High Priest did not track down the droids that Alima was seeking. With the death of that bafforr tree, the grove's intelligence diminished below true sentience. Nadon ultimately caused Alima's death by implicating him in the escape of the droids from Tatooine.
The second grove of bafforr trees grew outside the Mos Eisley township. According to rumor, it was hidden in the mountains south of the city; such rumors delighted younglings and provided hope to the hardy citizens of Tatooine. During the time of the Galactic Civil War, a patrol of Imperial stormtroopers discovered the grove and informed their superior, Ingah Muloha. Deeming the grove subversive to Imperial interests, Muloha sought to frame Nadon on various criminal charges. This development prompted Nadon to flee to Mos Eisley to protect the grove, and he was subsequently captured en route.
A group of sympathetic Rebel agents rescued Nadon and delivered him to the bafforr grove. With the Imperial troops believed to be lost in a gravel storm and Nadon's criminal record wiped by Rebel spies, the bafforr grove's safety was maintained.