Leetle Tree

The Leetle Tree is a non-dragon sprite which dropped after the Yulebucks ceased dropping and before January 1st, 2009. They were a spur of the moment release, resulting from a late-night discussion that occurred in the DC IRC channel. They are limited to one per scroll, and are classified as frozen eggs. If a player grabs another Leetle Tree, they receive a breed limit message. They are unbreedable, unabandonable and cannot be killed; if a user tries, they receive the message: "The Leetle Tree is too cute to kill."

When the Leetle Trees were first released, they were able to gain stats (as in views, unique views and clicks). They were even added into hatcheries by some people curious to see if they would grow. Later, this was changed so that adults and frozen things could no longer gain stats, therefore only Leetle Trees released in 2008 have stats which all other Leetle Trees now lack. On July 20th, 2017, the ability to name Leetle Trees was discovered. It was not announced on any update posts and the exact date of when this was added is unknown.

TJ09 coded the Leetle Trees to drop normally in the cave, rather than en masse. Between that and excessive lag plaguing the site at that time, very few users were able to catch one when they were first being released. On December 28 of 2010, Leetle Trees began to drop again: they flooded during the first hour, after which they dropped regularly. TJ09 stated that the Leetle Trees will be around for "a while", and are still available to this day in the Forest but with a very low drop rate.

Kila, their spriter, had indicated that she had further plans for them and that there might be variations on the original design. In October 2010, these plans were realized when all the Leetle Trees on site changed into an autumn version; instead of looking like a miniature pine tree, they turned into deciduous trees with bright red leaves falling off. Since then, different sprites for different seasons and events were released over the year. During the "Carrot Cave" event of April Fools' Day 2011, the sprite changed into a broccoli. Being an egg, it was referred to as "Seed" on scrolls during this event.

Leetle Trees were the inspiration for TJ's Leetle Adoptables site. They are featured on the site as an obtainable leetle.

Official Description
"Oh my. There is a Leetle Tree among the eggs."

Sprite Artist(s)

 * Kila (All)

Sprites
These are the regular appearances of the Leetle Tree appropriate to the season or holiday during the course of the year.

Special Leetle Tree
TheDarkCynder is currently the only user who received a bred and out-of-season Leetle Tree with the name Cookco Khoo. Its parent was a Leetle Tree named Kilaicious which, as of 2013, is now deceased.

Thanks to Hot on Fire, who had the chance to get a close and personal interview with TheDarkCynder, the full story was revealed:

Hot on Fire also asked TheDarkCynder how she felt about the whole situation and the aftermath:

Trivia

 * When Spring 2013 turned, Leetle Trees were initally out of sync with the Seasonals (i.e. were still Winter themed when Seasonals were breeding Spring varieties). TJ was notified and within a couple of hours the Leetle Trees had switched to the Spring theming. This suggests that the Leetle Tree seasons have been made to match those of Seasonal dragons.
 * Despite the Earth Day sprite being created 2 years earlier, it didn't appear on the site until after February 2013 due to TJ not realising that there had been a glitch in play that didn't display the sprite as intended.