Plantera

 is one of the new bosses in the 1.2 update. He is a Hard Mode boss in the Underground Jungle biome. To summon Plantera, you have to defeat another hard mode boss, such as The Twins. After you meet the criteria, you have to destroy a pink plant bulb found in the Jungle. There is no limit to the number of bulbs in a world; after all of them have been destroyed, more will simply spawn.



Known Drops
Leaf Blower

Wasp Gun

Seedling (pet)

Grenade Launcher

Rocket I (ammo)

Pygmy Staff (combat pet)

Nettle Burst

Plantera Trophy

Temple Key

Venus Magnum

Flower Pow

Appearance
1st Stage (ranged stage):

Main body is that of a pink flower bulb, much like the summoning one, and uses 3 vines to grab onto solid terain to move itself, which can also deal damage. Shoots sharp leaves that do little damage and fires faster as it approaches the last stage. There is also an intermidiate stage at (add life checkpoint)HP, where it starts shooting pink spiked balls that bounce off walls, making it almost suicidal to fight in tight spaces. The fire rate of the spiked balls also gets faster as it approaches the last stage.

Last Stage (melee stage) :

Loses it's petals to reveal a carnivorous plant like body, a multitude of smaller vines (besides the 3 used for "travel") which behave similarly to the Wall of Flesh's The Hungry. Stops shooting projectiles at this stage.

Strategy
Plantera is one of the slowest bosses in game, thus it is advisable to go to the surface as soon as you spawn it. In the surface player can avoid nearly all damage by just jumping and flying in circles around it while spamming ranged weapon on it.

Another surface strategy is to build a bridge of platforms about 90-100 feet off the ground and 200-250 tiles long. Lure Plantera to the surface and get on the platform bridge. Plantera will not attach his moving limbs to the platform bridge. As a result, you will always be above him and will only need to dodge his projectiles for the duration of the fight.

Trivia

 * It is named after the band Pantera.
 * Redigit stated on Twitter that Plantera's theme is the "most epic thing in game".
 * In Swedish, the term "Plantera" means "Planting", which refers to as planting a plant.
 * Plantera's "epic" theme