Changes: Tree

A tree is a common generated structure that consists of log and leaf blocks. There are six types of trees – oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, and dark oak. Other structures are loosely defined as trees: the huge fungus, huge mushroom, and chorus tree.

Structure

The trees found in Minecraft

Trees vary widely in height, from a bare minimum of 1 block of logs for bush trees, ranging up to a maximum of 30 blocks for giant jungle trees.

Tree canopies are composed of leaf blocks and grow 1 block higher than the highest log block (except for that of the giant oak tree, whose leaves grow 3 blocks higher). The canopy may begin from the ground and go up to 6 blocks from the ground. Tree canopies are generated from roughly spherical clusters of leaves about 5–7 blocks across, centered on sections of trunk or branches. Leaves must be supported by an adjacent trunk (or leaf blocks connected to the trunk), otherwise, they disappear.

Dark oak and giant jungle trees grow branches (logs connected horizontally, vertically or diagonally to the trunk or other branches). Most of the time, a single tree has between one and six branches, and each branch has between one and six logs. Acacia tree branches do not cover their branches in this way.^{[more information needed]} Regular oak, jungle, birch, and spruce trees (both small and large) lack branches.

Growth and characteristics

Trees are created when a map chunk is generated, and can also be grown by planting tree saplings.

Tree saplings have a ¹⁄₂₀ chance (¹⁄₄₀ if they are jungle saplings) of dropping from leaf blocks when they decay or are destroyed. There are six species of saplings, corresponding to the six main trees: oak, birch, spruce, jungle, acacia, and dark oak.

The sapling must be planted on a dirt, coarse dirt, podzol, grass block or farmland and must have a light level of at least 8 in the sapling block.

In Java Edition, acacia saplings do not grow on farmland and 2×2 trees cannot be grown when the NW sapling is on farmland.

A sapling uproots with light level 7 or less in the sapling block itself unless it has a view of the sky that is unobstructed (except by glass or other transparent materials). The sapling must have at least 6 blocks of space above it to grow; the amount of required space varies between the different species of trees. A ceiling above sapling limits the maximum height of the tree that can grow from that sapling. However, dirt blocks and logs may not prohibit tree growth, and in some cases may be replaced as a sapling attempt to grow through them. However in Bedrock edition, logs prohibit tree growth.

If multiple saplings are planted next to each other, each one grows as long as the leaves from the other grown saplings do not block too much of the sunlight. Artificial light (torches, etc.) can still be used to grow them if this happens.

All trees in the active chunk radius around the player make attempts to grow at random intervals. For any given tree this can work out to about 3 growth attempts per minute. When a tree attempts to grow, it first checks that it has enough light, then randomly chooses which variant of that species of tree to become; for example, an oak sapling chooses to grow as either a normal or fancy oak tree.

Once a tree has passed a light check and chosen size to attempt, it checks if there is enough space for its chosen size. If it encounters an obstruction during this check, it fails to grow and must wait for the next pass before it can attempt to grow again. This means that a tree in an open field with enough light grows relatively quickly, but a tree in a cramped tree farm that stunts its size may make several attempts before finally growing.

Bone meal, when used on a sapling, has a chance of forcing it to grow, so long as all of the normal checks (light, space, dirt, etc.) have passed. It does not guarantee growth, but forces an attempt to grow.

All saplings grow normally in the Nether and in The End, although they must be planted in dirt transported from the Overworld and provided with sufficient light and space. Leaf blocks in the Nether have the same color as if they were placed in a desert biome. In the end, they are a dull bluish-green, as in the mountains biome.

In order to grow a 2×2 tree (be it spruce, jungle or dark oak), four saplings must be placed adjacent to each other in a square. For growth to succeed, there must be no blocks adjacent (even diagonally) to the north-western side up to the final height of the tree. The bone meal can be used on any of the saplings. The largest jungle and spruce trees reach 31 blocks tall. Dark oak trees are typically 6–8 blocks tall.

Leaves and logs removed from a tree do not grow back over time.

Types of trees

Oak

Oaks are among the most common trees in the game. They have the smallest space requirements, and along with dark oak trees, they can drop an apple when a leaf block is destroyed. In swamp biomes, a slightly larger variant of the regular oak tree with vines is generated, which can naturally generate in shallow water.

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  An oak tree.

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  A "balloon" oak tree.

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  A swamp oak tree.

Spruce

Spruce trees grow from spruce saplings and have growth patterns and requirements similar to birch trees, although they appear different. They are mainly found in the taiga biome, but they may also generate in wooded mountains, snowy tundra, snowy taiga, and giant tree taiga biomes. Spruce logs have the same texture as oak logs, but it is a darker shade of brown; its leaves are denser, with a darker and more blueish tone.

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  A spruce tree.

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  A "lollipop" spruce tree.

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  A "matchstick" spruce tree.

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  A large spruce tree.

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  A large "lollipop" spruce tree.

Birch

Birch trees look fairly similar to small oaks in terms of height and are most commonly found in birch forest biomes. There are two types of birch: a shorter tree that can be grown by the player with birch saplings; and a taller, rarer variety that generates only naturally in tall birch forest biomes.

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  A birch tree.

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  A tall birch tree.

Jungle

Jungle trees are one of the rarest naturally generated trees in Minecraft because they are native to the jungle biomes, which are rare. Jungle tree leaves drop jungle tree saplings. When planted in grass or dirt they grow into a jungle tree with a 1×1 trunk, but the player can place them in a 2×2 formation to grow a jungle tree with a 2×2 trunk like the trees found naturally in the jungle biome.

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  A jungle tree.

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  A large jungle tree.

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  A jungle bush.

Acacia

Acacias are found in the savanna biome. They are about 8 blocks tall and feature unique diagonal trunks, and may occasionally have multiple canopies.

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  An acacia tree.

Dark oak

Dark oaks are found in the dark forest biome. They have thick, 2×2 trunks, and generate dirt blocks under their trunk if generated on a steep cliff. Dark oaks nearly always generate with irregular logs connected to the trunk – these represent large branches.

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  A dark oak tree.

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  Another dark oak tree.

Azalea

The counterpart to the real-world azalea shrub takes the form of a tree in Minecraft. Azalea trees generate on any empty space above a lush cave, with roots consisting of rooted dirt and hanging roots that reach down to the lush cave. The tree usually appears at the surface, but they can generate inside caves if there is enough room and a lush cave below.

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  An azalea tree.

Huge fungus

Huge fungi come in many shapes and sizes, from really small to really huge. They often generate with shroomlights, and crimson huge fungi often generate with weeping vines.

Huge crimson fungi are found in the crimson forest biome, and huge warped fungi are found in the warped forest biome.

While either type of huge fungus can be placed on either crimson nylium or warped nylium, they do not grow unless planted on their matching nylium and given bone meal.

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  A huge crimson fungus.

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  A huge warped fungus.

Huge mushroom

While loosely defined as a tree, these are structures generated in certain biomes. Instead of logs and leaves, they consist of mushroom stems and mushroom blocks. They do not drop their own block but instead drop mushrooms. They come in two variants, brown and red.

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  A huge red mushroom.

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  A huge brown mushroom.

Chorus tree

While loosely defined as a tree, these are structures generated on the outermost End islands. Instead of logs and leaves, they are instead comprised of chorus plant trunk blocks and flowers on the tip. They do not drop their own block but instead chorus fruit. They are usually extremely tall, having multiple branches generating up. When the bottom of the chorus tree is cut, the whole chorus tree falls apart, dropping their fruit.

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  A chorus tree.

Variant trees

In Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education, trees can generate as one of the two following variants of the normal tree. Both of these generate naturally, and can be grown out of normal saplings.^[1][2]

Dying trees

These trees have the standard growth pattern of any other tree, however, all exposed logs in the main trunk are covered with vines. They can generate as dark oak, jungle, spruce, or small oak trees.

Fallen trees

These trees consist of a single upright log, or stump. Logs lying on their side are often found 1–2 blocks from the stump, occasionally with mushrooms on top. Oak, spruce, birch, tall birch, and jungle trees can generate as fallen trees.

Foliage colors

Depending on where the tree generates, the color of the leaves may differ. For example, if an oak tree is in a colder biome, such as a taiga or mountains biome, it has a blue-green hue. However, if it is in a dry biome, such as a desert or savanna, it has a mustard yellow hue. Birch and spruce leaves do not follow these rules; they are always the same color regardless of the biome.

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  Foliage color in wetter biomes.

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  Foliage color in drier biomes.

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  Foliage color in colder biomes.

Leaves are checked individually for biome coloration rather than as part of a larger tree; as such, trees that were grown between biomes usually have multiple shades on each side.

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  A tree grown between two biomes.

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  A tree situated on the boundary of a jungle, swamp and desert biome, showing skins of all three on its leaves.

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  An acacia tree split between a savanna biome and a swamp biome.

Data values

ID

Name	Identifier
[No displayed name]	tree

Video

History

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding trees.
May 23, 2009					Notch says he accomplished adding "Trees with a trunk and a Canopy".
0.0.14a					Added trees. At this point they were available only as oak trees with a single foliage color, and were simply stumps covered with a thin leaf layer. Foliage is a 3×3×3 cube
0.0.14a_08					Changed tree shape again, this time with a "+" shape in the top leaf layer.
0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 1)					Trees have a new shape, resembling modern small oak trees.
June 14, 2009					Notch discussed trees as part of his vision for resource-balancing in Survival mode: "You can never directly build wood, but if you plant seeds on grass, you get a small plant. After some time, the plant will pop into a large beautiful tree."
August 25, 2009					Demonstrated Trees can now be grown with saplings.
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST					The tree growing ability was implemented.[needs testing]
0.29_01					Growing trees on a multiplayer server is now optional.
Java Edition Infdev
Minecraft Infdev		20100227-1			Trees temporarily removed to test basic infinite world functionality.
		20100320			Re-added trees.
		20100327			Trees regenerate after the world is reloaded.
		20100330			Trees no longer regenerate.
		20100413			New larger trees implemented, using parts of Paul Spooner's Forester editor script.[3][4]
		20100420			These new trees can be grown with saplings.
		20100607			Reverted back to old tree code.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.6					The large trees were re-added.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Birch and spruce trees introduced. Trees predating this update would appear to have multiple types of leaves, as the data indicating tree type was previously used for decay calculations. Oak trees no longer generate in Taigas.
1.5					Birch and spruce trees can now be grown using saplings. Old saplings either stayed as an oak sapling or became either a birch or spruce sapling.
1.8		Pre-release			The Swampland biome was added, with a new tree design (made of the same blocks as oak trees), which are of more uniform size and have vines growing on them. There is no way to grow these trees; oak saplings grow normal oak trees. A bush-shaped variety of oak tree was removed.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Trees can sometimes be found growing on blocks of sand in swamp biomes.
1.2.1		12w03a			Added jungle trees.
1.3.1		12w19a			Small jungle trees can generate with cocoa already growing on them.
1.3.2		pre			Large oak trees now generate with sideways logs.
1.7.2		13w36a			Mega spruce trees, dark oak trees, and acacia trees added. These trees borrowed other trees' leaves and wood.
					Spruce trees now generate in ice plains biomes and extreme hills+ biomes in addition to oak trees.
					Large oak trees no longer naturally generate in forest biomes. Jeb explained it was due to issues in the large tree generator code that caused severe performance issues.[5]
		13w43a			Acacia and roofed oak now have their own wood, leaves and sapling variants. Note that acacia and roofed oak trees generated prior to this snapshot remain unchanged.
		1.7			Renamed "roofed oak" to "dark oak".
1.8.2		pre4			Big oak and dark oak branches no longer replace solid blocks.
1.9		15w44a			Large oak trees now generate in forest biomes again, thanks to an FPS fix provided by Spooner.[6]
1.10		16w20a			There is now a rare chance to find lonely trees in plains.
1.13		18w06a			Large spruce trees now transform nearby grass blocks into podzol when they grow.
		18w22a			Naturally-generated leaves now survive at a distance of up to 6 blocks from logs, instead of 4.
1.15		19w41a			The tops of large acacia canopies are now plus shaped.[7]
		19w45a			The tops of large acacia canopies are now again a rotated square
Upcoming Java Edition
1.17		21w10a			Added azalea trees that generates with azalea leaves, flowering azalea leaves and oak logs.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0					Added oak, spruce, and birch trees.
v0.2.1					Oak trees generate with spruce wood.
v0.4.0					Oak trees use oak wood again.
v0.9.0		build 1			Added jungle trees (small and mega), dark oak trees, acacia trees, mega spruce trees, oak trees (swamp and large oak variants), and version-exclusive fallen and dying trees.
					Cold-en oak trees (spruce trees shaped like oak trees) no longer generate.
v0.11.0		build 1			Added tall birch tree variant.
Bedrock Edition
1.16.0		beta 1.15.0.51			Large spruce trees now transform nearby grass blocks into podzol when they grow.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added oak, spruce, and birch trees.
TU12					Added jungle trees.
TU27	CU15	1.18			Added dark oak and acacia wood, but without their own leaves or saplings.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Added dark oak and acacia saplings.
TU60	CU51	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	Added fallen and dying trees.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added trees.

Issues

Issues relating to "Tree" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Floating trees may appear when small above-ground ponds generate in a forested area. This happens since the tree is generated when the chunk loads first, before the pond appears underneath. This leaves the tree floating above the lake. If the pond is lava, the tree can catch on fire, potentially spreading to other trees and starting a forest fire.
• Large jungle trees and dark oak trees generate with dirt under them if they generate partly or wholly over air or water blocks.
• Oak, spruce, birch, and acacia are all genera of trees.
• Huge fungus trees were able to generate above the bedrock in the early nether update snapshots

Gallery

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  Trees in 0.0.14a.^[8]

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  Another old image of a tree, along with its "cross-cut."^[9]

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  A classic-styled tree before biomes were introduced.

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  Notch posted this image of the new large trees provided to him by Paul Spooner.^[3]

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  Large trees with leaf removed in Alpha 1.1.2_01.

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  Tall spruce tree in forest in taiga biome.

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  A floating tree, formed artificially after being set on fire with a Flint & Steel.

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  A dying tree in a Pocket Edition.

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  Comparison of oak tree sizes.

Odd generation

• NaturallyOccurringFloatingTree.png

  A large tree that was generated on a small floating body of land.

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  A tree that was naturally generated in a closed-over area of land, with light provided by a hole in the ceiling.

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  A tree generated in a cave, with light provided from lava.

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  Trees can even generate in ravines.

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  This tree generated right next to a natural lava pool and started to burn shortly after.

• Tree basin.png

  A tree generated on a dirt vein in a basin.

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  Another ravine tree.

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  A water lake has cut dirt away from beneath this jungle tree, exposing the logs.

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  Sugar cane replacing leaves.

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  A tree growing on a clay block, caused when the clay replaced the dirt.

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  This tree generated on a dirt vein in a desert, which was exposed by a generated surface cave.

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  A tree that generated in ravine, next to the lava and mineshaft.

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  Tree which generated under a cliff in Mountains biome.

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  Sometimes, trees can grow through blocks placed by player.

Official artwork

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  Artwork of an Oak Tree. Note the Chicken perched on the leaves.

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  Artwork of a tree with a Beehive.

References