Looking for a fantasy book with young male protagonist protecting magic seed

Question

Years ago I read a book that featured a pretty typical "young boy is plucked from obscurity to be chosen one destined to protect the world from magical evil" (that might have included some found friends/comrades along the way), from what I can remember surrounding a plot about a magical tree that had died or been destroyed by this major evil figure (male, as I recall) but had a single magical seed left that could sprout another magic tree.

The final "battle" scene I believe included a shock reveal of the protagonist's mother (who had been believed to be dead?), the realization that the evil antagonist was the protagonist's father, and the image of the evil antagonist keeping this magic seed as an earring in his ear. I can distinctly remember the description of the magic seed earring as spiral in shape.

In the end the protagonist manages to come into possession of the seed and plants it possibly outside a castle in the very last pages of the book.

If anyone has even the slightest suggestion of what this book could be, I would be terribly appreciative. I've rolled this plot around in my head and my google searches for years with no luck, and I'd love to have a title to go with it.

Answer 1

'The Elfstones of Shannara'? The tree was called the Ellcrys. "The Ellcrys is a fictional sapient tree with silver bark and crimson leaves that was "created by the bonding of earth and life". She appears in two novels of the Shannara series. She is the magical linchpin of the barrier that keeps the Demons that once overran the Four Lands trapped in an alternate world; this world and the barrier are both known as the Forbidding. She is tended to by a group of young Elves known as the "Chosen", who are selected by the tree itself. The Ellcrys first appeared in the novel The Elfstones of Shannara, where the protagonists embarked upon a quest to attempt a "rebirth" of the Ellcrys before she died. The Ellcrys also plays a part in the Shannara prequel series Genesis of Shannara as well as in The Dark Legacy of Shannara.