Tree or soft variety of cane (5)
I believe the answer is:
pecan
'tree' is the definition.
(pecan tree is a kind of tree)
'soft variety of cane' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for piano, 'soft').
'variety of' is an anagram indicator.
'cane' is an anagram of 'ecan'.
'p'+'ecan'='PECAN'
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for pecan that I've seen before include "Something like a walnut" , "Type of nut" , "Oval nut of south central United States" , "Species of hickory - edible nut" , "Nut of American hickory tree" .)