Leaves are a type of block that are abundant in normally generated maps, appearing on every tree, and can be collected if a player uses shears on them. Each tree type has different leaves. Leaves are available for use in both creative and survival mode. Leaves can be broken more easily with a sword, but doing this will wear it down much faster than normal, as swords are not meant for this purpose, but for attacking mobs or players.
Behavior
Leaf blocks are very weak, can only be collected with shears, and can be easily destroyed by hitting them with any tool, or even bare hands. Leaves are extremely vulnerable to explosions and are highly flammable. As of Beta 1.2, leaves in snowy areas have a different texture. It is possible, but extremely unlikely for a leaf block to stay on fire forever after catching on fire.
Appearances
There are six types of leaves:
- Oak leaves
- Birch leaves
- Jungle leaves
- Acacia leaves
- Spruce leaves
- Dark Oak leaves
Not all leaf types have the same texture. They may differ from one another in color, leaf-shape, or transparency.
Harvesting
Destroying leaves yield saplings 6.25% (1⁄16) of the time which can be planted by the player in order to grow new trees. Destroying oak leaves can also yield apples 0.5% (1⁄200) of the time which can be eaten by a player to gain hunger points. As of snapshot 18w43a, leaves may also drop sticks when broken as of 1.13.
As of Beta 1.7 leaves can be collected using shears. Using shears collects the leaves with a single hit (unless one is underwater, which will make them almost instant to harvest using shears). However, leaves will despawn after a while if not by a wood log.
Mining
Leaves can be mined easily with any tool or by hand, but a sword or shears is the fastest. Shears are required to harvest the block.
| Tool |  
|
|---|---|
| Hardness | 0.2 |
| Breaking time[note 1] | |
| Default | 0.3 |
| Sword | 0.2 |
| Shears | 0.05 |
- ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds.
Trivia
- Before Beta 1.7, leaves could not be harvested without mods, and since Beta 1.8, player or Enderman-placed leaf blocks will persist over time without decaying.
- Before 1.6, the above made it possible to place torhces and ladders on leaves on "Fast" graphics and switch back to "Fancy" graphics without making them come off.
- Similarly, in "Fast" graphics, getting stuck inside leaves (usually by using bonemeal) will suffocate a player, while on "Fancy" graphics leaves will not.
- In creative mode, if looking in the inventory, all oak, spruce, birch and jungle leaves are grouped together, while acacia and dark oak leaves are in their own separate group. This is due to there being for possible states for each leaf species, and with 16 possible states with data values, another leaf block (leaves2) was added.
- In Pocket Edition, when spruce leaves are in a Taiga biome, while it is snowing, they will turn to a light-gray-pink color.
- In older versions of Minecraft the leaves would not decay after all of the closest logs of wood were destroyed. This made some players upset due to it being unnatural.
- The old textures of Birch leaves are the recolored Oak leaves.
