History Main / ArborealAbode

* The residents of Fortree City in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire''.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Houses built directly into living trees are something of a recurring theme.
** During the first three seasons, Twilight Sparkle lives in a tree with room not only for living quarters but for an entire library. It's a fairly classic example, with habitable space throughout its height and numerous windows poking through the canopy. [[spoiler:It's destroyed in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Twilight's Kingdom Part II]]'', prompting her to move into a castle made of crystal instead, though even that looks somewhat treelike and [[ItMakesSenseInContext came from a tree]].]]
** Zecora also lives inside of a tree, though hers has fewer books and more [[WitchDoctor cauldrons and medicinal herbs]]. Only the bottom of the trunk is hollowed out to live in, though, and the canopy and branches are unmodified.
** Mage Meadowbrook likewise lived inside a large tree in the Hayseed Swamp, and her descendant Cattail still does. It's a fairly atypical Arboreal Abode, as -- besides consisting of a tangled mass of vines and stems rather than having a single trunk -- it has no windows, but only a small door at its base. When Twilight and Fluttershy visit in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E18AHealthOfInformation A Health of Information]]", Twilight remarks that "anyone who lives in a tree is okay by me", in a callback to her own tree-based house.
** The hippogriffs of Mount Aris live in houses built into enormous living trees, with doors at their bases, windows spiraling up their trunks and large, glass-sided chambers nested in the canopies, their walls growing directly from the trunks. The effect is that their city looks as much like a lush, open forest as it does like a typical settlement.
** At the end of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", the students build a treehouse out of the wrecked remnants of the Tree of Harmony [[spoiler:that is sparked by their friendship into transforming into a living, crystalline treehouse reminiscent of Twilight's old library in appearance]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'': Attempted in "Skyscraper Smurfs" when Architect and Handy build a smurfominium inside a hollowed-out tree. After a fire destroyed it, the Smurfs preferred living in their village over living in a tree together.

* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'': Most characters live in large hollowed-out trees. This is often lampshaded and played with (for example, the homeowners' association complaining that the Dewclaws have changed their colour scheme without permission when it's autumn; the association all live in evergreens).

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series, the [[AllThereInTheManual side materials]] reveal that [[TheFairFolk fairies]] live inside trees, flowers, and any parts of nature. These fairy houses are invisible to humans, who see them as normal trees.

* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' 4 has Greenwood Village, where all the buildings are hollowed out trees, including Anna's house.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has Frontier Village, home of the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Nopon]]. It's a massive monstrosity of a hollow tree that borders on LayeredMetropolis, with its 9 levels connected by stairs and rope bridges. Oh, it also has a small lake on its top and a massive floating sea above it.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyDuggee'': Norrie lives in a tree.

* In Alan Dean Foster's ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' series, the turtle wizard Clothahump's home is inside a massive oak tree that's larger on the inside than the outside, though it's really expensive to cast that spell because [[IncrediblyLamePun it causes inflation]].

* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' 3 has Greenwood Village, where all the buildings are hollowed out trees, including Anna's house.

[[folder:Web cmics]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Fairly common in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'': The title characters and the recently married Lindesfarne and Fenton have residences in large hollowed-out trees. This is often lampshaded and played with (for example, the homeowners' association complaining that the Dewclaws have changed their colour scheme without permission when it's autumn; the association all live in evergreens).
* Webcomic/DaisyOwl and her family live in one, [[http://www.daisyowl.com/comic/2008-07-14 which probably isn't up to code.]]

* Terezi from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' lived in one of these, and used the branches to hang the stuffed animals she found guilty.

** At the end of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", the students build a treehouse out of the wicked remnants of the Tree of Harmony [[spoiler:that is sparked by their friendship into transforming into a living, crystalline treehouse reminiscent of Twilight's old library in appearance]].
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny lives in a tree in at least one cartoon, "The Case of the Missing Hare".
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. In "Saddlesore Galactica", horse racing jockeys are revealed to actually be subterranean elf-like creatures who live in "a fiberglass tree".
* Finn and Jake from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' live in one.
* Norrie lives in a tree in ''WesternAnimation/HeyDuggee''.
* So does Wubbzy in ''WesternAnimation/WowWowWubbzy''.
* Chip and Dale lived in a furnished base in ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''.
** They were occasionally shown living in one of these in the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts as well.

* Slappy Squirrel from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' lived in a tree, one with electricity so she could watch TV in there.
* Attempted with WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs in the episode "Skyscraper Smurfs" when Architect and Handy build a smurfominium inside a hollowed-out tree. After a fire destroyed it, the Smurfs preferred living in their village over living in a tree together.
* In the Columbia ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheCrow'' cartoons, Crawford Crow has a home in a tree with an elevator to ground level.
* The [[WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons 'Raccoondominium']] is one of these. Justified somewhat by one of the specials, which states that the trees are big enough for this sort of thing. In the later episodes, we find out that Bentley and Lisa's home is one as well. However, interior wise, it's much closer to a suburban home than the hollowed-out look of the 'Raccoondominium'. (It even has a garage!)
* The animated version of ''WesternAnimation/PeterRabbit'' lives in one. Mr. Tod's lair is a variation, as it's a house built into the ''roots'' of a tree.
* Sandy on ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' takes it a step further. Not only does she live inside a tree, but that tree is [[UnderwaterBase inside an underwater dome]].
* WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks lives in a two-story house partially built out of a tree. [[WildChild Fee and Foo]] live high up in the branches. Most of the other houses are conventionally constructed, though Randl's business (which might also be his living quarters) is entirely inside a tree (and is a good bit BiggerOnTheInside).

** Mage Meadowbrook likewise lived inside a large tree in the Hayseed Swamp, and her descendant Cattail still does. It's the most visible atypical Arboreal Abode in the show, as -- besides consisting of a tangled mass of vines and stems rather than having a single trunk -- it has now windows, but only a small door at its base. When Twilight and Fluttershy visit in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E18AHealthOfInformation A Health of Information]]", Twilight remarks that "anyone who lives in a tree is okay by me", in a callback to her own tree-based house.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': The Qowat Milat sisterhood lives inside a solitary, gigantic tree which towers above all the others within the forest next to North Station; it's an idyllic setting for a monastery. The rooms, which are fully-furnished, have been carved into tree trunk and they're quite spacious, but there are no doors or windows, just curtains which separate one area from another. (The planet Vashti has [[BinarySuns two suns]], so it never gets cold there, and [[AmazonBrigade the nuns are such badass warriors]] that they don't worry about intruders.)

* Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' has the useless wizard Rincewind captured by classical Graecian tree-spirits, the Dryads. They have resolved the "we live in a tree but the tree is still green and flourishes, indeed we and the tree need each other to thrive" paradox by being multi-dimensional - indeed their Tree shares many attributes of a TARDIS of ''Series/DoctorWho'' fame, by being far larger on the inside than on the outside. The Tree of the Dryads and the great forest tree they seemingly inhabit may not occupy ''exactly'' the same dimension of space-time...

** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine #49 adventure "Lenny O'Brien's Pot O'Gold". The leprechaun Lenny O'Brien hollows out the trunk of an old willow tree and turns it into a home, complete with a kitchen, a bedroom, and a den.

* The [[TheRaccoons 'Raccoondominium']] is one of these. Justified somewhat by one of the specials, which states that the trees are big enough for this sort of thing. In the later episodes, we find out that Bentley and Lisa's home is one as well. However, interior wise, it's much closer to a suburban home than the hollowed-out look of the 'Raccoondominium'. (It even has a garage!)

Some characters live in trees. Not in a tree house, but actually inside a hollow tree trunk. Usually there will be a doorway in one side of the trunk, and a substantial space inside. More elaborate arboreal abodes may have front steps, windows, back doors, and even chimneys visible from the outside. The nicest ones have several fully-furnished rooms inside.

This usually leads to a lot of FridgeLogic if one starts to seriously think about it. How is the tree alive and green if it's been hollowed out? (While dead trees are an option, they are usually shown as green and vibrant.) [[BiggerOnTheInside How can you fit an entire two-bedroom apartment on the inside of a tree?]] How are there windows in the upper leaves that should logically only have the thin ends of branches behind them? Don't expect any of these questions to be answered.[[note]]The first question can easily be answered by any arborist: only the thin layer of cells between the tree's trunk and bark is actually alive. Whether what's left inside the hollowed out trunk is [[ArtisticLicensePhysics sturdy enough to support the rest of the tree]] or large enough to contain the depicted dwelling is another matter.[[/note]]

* In ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'', the elves of Lornadoon live inside hollowed out dead trees.

** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine #49 adventure "Lenny O'Brien's Pot O'Gold". The leprechaun Lenny O'Brien hollows out the trunk of an old willow tree and turns it into a home, complete with a kitchen, a bedroom and a den.

* ''Encounter Critical'' supplement ''Asteroid 1618''. In the Domed City a number of elves live inside a giant staroak tree.

* In ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'', Woo's girlfriend Lily lives in a tree. This is not unexpected, given that she's a racoon, but her hole in the tree has woven rugs and a pool table.

** During the first three seasons, Twilight Sparkle lives in a tree with room not only for living quarters, but for an entire library. It's a fairly classic example, with habitable space throughout its height and numerous windows poking through the canopy. [[spoiler:It's destroyed in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Twilight's Kingdom Part II]]'', prompting her to move into a castle made of crystal instead, though even that looks somewhat treelike and [[ItMakesSenseInContext came from a tree]].]]

* The [[TheRaccoons 'Raccoondominium']] is one of these. Justified somewhat by one of the specials, which states that the trees are big enough for this sort of thing. In the later episodes, we find out that Bentley and Lisa's home is one as well. However, interior wise, it's much closer to a suburban home than the hollowed out look of the 'Raccoondominium'. (It even has a garage!)