The Great Tree was a tree of the uneti variety, possessing sensitivity to the Force, that thrived long ago in the heart of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. This temple served as both a school and monastery for the Jedi Order and took the form of a massive ziggurat. Following the Clone Wars, Darth Sidious proclaimed himself Emperor of the galaxy via the proclamation_of_the_new_order, and the temple was transformed into the Imperial Palace, leading to the tree's removal. Remnants of the tree were secretly stored at an Imperial base, from which Luke Skywalker and Shara Bey later recovered them. Skywalker gave one of these fragments to Bey and her husband, Kes Dameron, who then planted it outside their home on Yavin 4.
It's believed that the Great Tree, a Force-sensitive tree, initially grew at the heart of the Jedi Order's temple on Ossus. Later, it was relocated to the newer Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where it was situated within a courtyard utilized for training Jedi younglings.
During his time at the Jedi Temple, Ky Narec, a Jedi Knight, found joy in feeding and observing song sparrows and crown finches as they flew around the Great Tree.
Jedi Master Dooku once showed the Great Tree to Qui-Gon Jinn when Jinn was a young boy. Having been born on Coruscant, Jinn was captivated by the tree, as he had never seen anything like it before.
Barriss Offee, a Padawan who was Mirialan and deeply valued spiritual connections with plants, felt a natural connection to the tree. Offee found that she couldn't sense any darkness around the tree and often meditated there, as she was unable to do so in her own room. Before leaving for the invasion of Geonosis in 21 BBY, Offee meditated by the tree with her friend, Jedi Knight Tutso Mara.
When Darth Sidious, a malevolent Dark Lord of the Sith, assumed control of the Galactic Republic, he appointed himself Emperor and initiated the exterminating of the Jedi. After seizing the Jedi temple for his own use, the Emperor converted it into the Imperial Palace and had the Force-sensitive tree removed. Only two living twigs remained, which were stored in a secret base located on Vetine. These remnants were recovered by Commander Luke Skywalker, the last known Jedi Knight, and Lieutenant Shara Bey of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Skywalker decided to keep one of the fragments, and gifted the other to Bey and her husband, Kes Dameron. After their service to the Rebellion concluded, they planted it outside their new home on Yavin 4.
Bey died in 10 ABY. Sometime after her death, her son, Poe Dameron, who spent his childhood playing near the growing Force tree, attached a pair of old podracer engines to his father's koyo picker to harvest their koyo grove. The tree was scorched by the engine exhaust, and Kes made his son nurse the tree back to health for a year as punishment.
The ancient tree at the Jedi Temple made its debut in "The Wrong Jedi," an episode from the fifth season of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Andre Kirk created concept art for the tree and its surrounding training ground in 2011. Greg Rucka, the writer of the comic book mini-series Star Wars: Shattered Empire, chose to include the tree in the fourth issue of the comic because he wanted Luke Skywalker to be in search of a Jedi artifact that was more than "just another holocron." Rucka, inspired by an idea from Pablo Hidalgo and the Lucasfilm Story Group, believed that the tree served as a powerful metaphor for the rebuilding of the galaxy following the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.