Invalid Data Value Leaves

This page describes content that exists only in outdated versions of Java Edition.

This feature used to be in the game, but has ever since been removed.It may or may not return in a future update.

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

Invalid data value leaves are item forms of the primary leaves block with damage values outside of the usual range which leaves can usually be obtained in.

Obtaining

This section is missing information about MCPE-41408 indicates this may have been possible in Bedrock Edition at some point.

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Without the use of commands, invalid data value leaves are unobtainable in the last versions in which they existed without inheriting them from a prior version in which they were obtainable.

Breaking leaves blocks

Invalid data value leaves were obtainable by breaking leaves blocks placed in the world which had specific metadata values. When broken, the item would inherit the exact metadata that the block had, rather than be converted into one of the four valid states. This can be done from Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 onwards.

The bug allowing for this was fixed in 12w49a^[1], making invalid data value leaves unobtainable from this version onwards.

	Species	Obtained from	Valid?
0	Oak	Shears, or silk touch on a single leaf from a tree	Yes
1	Spruce		Yes
2	Birch		Yes
3	Jungle		Yes
4	Oak	Silk Touch on a player-placed leaves block	No
5	Spruce		No
6	Birch		No
7	Jungle		No
8	Oak	Silk Touch on a leaves block from a tree after an adjacent leaves block has been broken	No
9	Spruce		No
10	Birch		No
11	Jungle		No
12	Oak	Silk Touch on a player-placed leaves block after an adjacent leaves block has been broken	No
13	Spruce		No
14	Birch		No
15	Jungle		No

In summary:

A large amount of leaves with metadata 8, 9, 10 or 11, depending on the species of the tree in question, can be obtained by breaking the leaves of a naturally-generated or sapling-grown tree using a tool with the Silk Touch enchantment. The first leaves block broken will always be of metadata 0, 1, 2 or 3, but the majority of subsequently broken leaves will return values 8, 9, 10 or 11.
Leaves with metadata 12, 13, 14 or 15, depending on species, can be obtained in bulk by manually placing leaves in a large, connected fashion such as a cuboid, and then proceeding to break all of these with a Silk Touch tool.
Leaves with metadata 4, 5, 6 or 7, depending on species, can be obtained in bulk by manually placing leaves in a spaced-out fashion, such that none of the placed leaves blocks are touching each other (even diagonally), and then breaking the blocks with a Silk Touch tool.

When placing leaves for the latter two cases, it is recommended that valid data value leaves are placed, as the placement of invalid data value leaves has not been fully researched.

Usage

Placement

This section is missing information about check to see how the behavior changed in earlier and later versions.

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In 14w11b,^{[more information needed]} placed invalid data value leaves will always place leaves that do not decay. Leaves items with damage 4, 5, 6 and 7 will place leaves with metadata 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. Similarly, items with damage 12, 13, 14 and 15 will place blocks with metadata 12, 13, 14 and 15. Items with damage 8, 9, 10 and 11 will respectively place blocks with metadata 13, 14, 15 and 19.

Conversion to future versions

In 1.13 (17w47a) onwards, distinguishing between block and item variants using metadata and damage was formally abolished. As a result of this, existing items would be converted over to the new ID system automatically. Invalid data value leaves behave anomalously in that instead of converting to their respective parent species, they all convert to oak leaves instead. Despite these items often being unknowingly collected and stored in older versions in such a way that conversion like this would end up being undesirable, Mojang have decided to not fix this^[2].

Nomenclature

Leaves items with data values higher than 3, particularly oak leaves with a damage value of 4,^[3] are often referred to as "alpha leaves". This is a particularly egregious misnomer, as any of the twelve extreme data values can be obtained in versions as late as 1.4.5, with absolutely no involvement from Alpha or even Beta versions of the game. How exactly this specific term reached common usage remains unknown, although it may be tied to the existence of "alpha trees", in which trees generated or grown before Java Edition Beta 1.2 would be comprised of multiple species of leaves if upgraded to this version or beyond, as metadata which was previously reserved for leaf decay was now used for distinguishing different species of leaves from each other.

Similarly confusingly, petrified oak slabs are sometimes referred to as "alpha slabs", despite the fact that the block was introduced in Beta 1.3, several months after the end of the Alpha era of the game.

History

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100131			Durability has been introduced. It can be assigned to leaves items via an inventory editor, but is functionally meaningless in this case.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Leaves items with a nonzero value set for damage now process this as a variant form of the item, rather than literal damage, resulting in the item forms now appearing distinct (spruce leaves now use their own texture).
1.4					The durability bar has been removed from leaves with higher damage values.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Leaves with damage values above 3 are now obtainable in survival via the Silk Touch enchantment. Prior to this version, Silk Touch would ignore block metadata and always return an item with metadata 0.
1.2.1		12w03a			The jungle biome and its associated tree have been implemented, making the leaves block with metadata 3 obtainable in survival, alongside its invalid item variants 7, 11 and 15. Prior to this version, if these metadata variants were desired, a tree from prior to Beta 1.2 would be required due to metadata used for decay calculations being repurposed for distinguishing species; this method was also not renewable.
1.3.1		?			Leaves now have different tooltips for each species. All invalid data value item forms of leaves are named "Oak Leaves", regardless of species.
1.4.6		12w49a			The Silk Touch enchantment now only drops leaves with metadata 0 to 3, making higher values unobtainable in Survival.
1.8		14w17a			Leaves with data values outside of the expected range now have the correct name corresponding to the data value it represents, rather than all sharing the name "Oak Leaves".
		14w25a			With the introduction of data-driven item models, any item with a data value outside of what is accepted by the game has no model to point to, resulting in use of the missing item model.
		14w30a			Invalid data value leaves, alongside other invalid data value items, now appear the size of a full block when held in third person or by another player or mob.
1.9		15w31a			The missing model's inventory appearance has changed, resulting in the appearance of invalid data value leaves also changing.
1.9		15w31a			The items also appear the size of a full block when held in first person and when dropped on the ground, and also appear larger than before in an item frame.
1.13		17w43a			The missing texture has changed, resulting in the appearance of invalid data value leaves also changing.
1.13		17w47a			Numeric IDs for blocks and items have been completely removed from the game, with different species of leaves being given their own string IDs. As a result, invalid data value leaves have been "removed" as any such item now converts cleanly into oak leaves.
Bedrock Edition
?					Leaves items with invalid data values may have been obtainable at certain points in the game.^[4]
Legacy Console Edition
TU7	?	?	?	?	Leaves with damage values above 3 are now obtainable in survival with the introduction of the Silk Touch enchantment.
TU14	?	?	?	?	The Silk Touch enchantment now only drops leaves with metadata 0 to 3, making higher values unobtainable.^[5]

Inventory appearances

From version		Damage value												Notes
From version		4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Notes
0.31	20100131													Durability introduced. Currently meaningless for leaves.
	20100201-2227													All 3D items now appear slightly darker on the left.
	^{[more information needed]}													All 3D items now appear much brighter.
Minecraft Infdev	20100611													All 3D items now appear slightly darker.
Alpha v1.0.1														All 3D items now appear very slightly darker.
Alpha v1.2.0	preview													Leaves are now colored per biome. The item does not yet respect this and uses the untinted gray texture.
Beta 1.2														Values for damage on leaves are now processed as variants. The durability bar appears slightly emptier.
Beta 1.4														The durability bar is no longer present.
Beta 1.6	Test Build 3													All 3D items now appear much brighter and are rotated 90 degrees clockwise from their previous positions.
Beta 1.7														The item forms of leaves are now tinted.
Beta 1.8	Pre-release													All 3D items now appear even brighter than previously, with almost no shading.
1.0.0	RC2													All 3D items are now shaded more reasonably.
1.2.1	12w03a													Jungle leaves are actually introduced, filling the previously unused fourth data value.
1.3.1	12w22a													All 3D items in the inventory have been rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.
1.4.2	12w34a													Items appeared slightly darker in the player's inventory than in chests prior to this version.
1.8	14w25a													Model no longer exists
1.9	15w31a													The missing model is no longer rotated or downscaled.
1.13	17w43a													The missing texture has changed.