Tree

A tree is a common terrain feature that mainly 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. 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.

$$, 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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; 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.

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.

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, with multiple branches. When the bottom of the chorus tree is cut, the whole chorus tree falls apart, dropping their fruit.

Variant trees
$$, 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.



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.

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