Trees



Trees are the largest plants in Terraria, appearing mostly at the surface and often in clusters with similar height. Trees can be chopped down with an axe, destroyed with the use of explosives, or by pouring lava on their bases. Destroying or chopping down a tree will yield many units of their respective wood, an essential crafting material, and have a chance of dropping one or more Acorns that can be planted to grow more trees. Larger trees will yield more of these two materials when removed; one unit of wood will drop for each block of tree (including branches), and one acorn may drop for each leaf patch.

It is possible to cut off parts of the tree, but cutting at the lowermost center tile will destroy the entire tree. If parts of the tree are left, they will not regrow. Tiles beneath trees cannot be destroyed or actuated.

Two other large plants do not drop wood and spawn differently, but are otherwise treated similarly to trees. These are Giant Glowing Mushrooms and Cactus plants.

Trees as obstacles
With the exception of Living Trees (discussed further below), trees are background objects that do not affect player or enemy movement. However, torches can be placed on any type of tree, whether it is the Living variant or not.

Trees cannot be climbed or scaled with items such as a grappling hook (other than the Squirrel Hook), or have blocks of dirt or other walk-on surfaces be placed to overlap their limbs (it is possible in some versions however, Mobile excluded, to attach platforms to the trunk of a tree). However, blocks and platforms can be placed in front of the leaves at the top of the tree (or the caps of Giant Glowing Mushrooms) and furniture can be placed there, although it will be obscured by the leaves. Objects that give off light (E.g. campfires, torches, etc.) will also be obscured by the leaves, but will still emit light as normal. It can sometimes be necessary to chop down a tree that is next to a cavern entrance or cliff in the early game in order to replace it with a ladder of blocks that will allow scaling of the steep surface; this becomes unnecessary when the player obtains a grappling hook, Climbing Claws or other items that allow improved jumping or flying.

Trees must be removed when building houses, as they may obstruct building it. When digging upward to the surface, trees may obstruct your digging, so they need to be destroyed in that instance, too.

Acorns and Saplings
Planting an acorn on certain blocks will create a Sapling that can eventually grow into a tree. An acorn can only be planted on grass, Corrupt grass, Crimson grass, Hallowed grass, Jungle grass, Snow, or Sand. (Not mushroom grass, but see "self-spawning" below). The tree will be of a type according to the block it was planted on, with random size and shape appropriate to their type. Saplings can be destroyed with a Pickaxe, but will not drop the Acorn they were planted from. Saplings can only grow under the following conditions:


 * 1) The acorn requires one horizontal space of appropriate open ground on either side of its base, where it may put a stump. Note that worldgen can place trees in places where an acorn would not grow, such as atop a single block of soil.
 * 2) The sapling also requires at least two unobstructed (empty) tiles to the left and right to put branches, forming a 5-unit wide column. The ground to either side need not be the same grass block type as the sapling's. The tree will not grow if it isn't on grass blocks.
 * 3) There must be at least three open tiles between saplings or only one will grow into a tree. This matches the previous rules, i.e. each acorn needs both adjacent tiles free, which means the closest two trees can be is with three tiles between them.
 * 4) Small grass and tiny flower plants will not block a sapling's growth, but almost anything that takes a pickaxe to remove will do so: torches, platforms, Sunflowers, etc. cannot be within a 2-block radius. Dye plants, Mushrooms, Jungle plants or Trees, Cacti, etc. can also self-spawn next to a sapling and prevent its growth, but once the blocking item is harvested, the sapling can grow normally.
 * 5) Most saplings require at least 16 tiles of vertical clearance (32 feet by a Depth Meter) to grow into a tree, including the tile the sapling occupies. Jungle trees require 24 tiles, and palm trees require 30 tiles. On the, the requirements are different, with most trees requiring 9-20 tiles and jungle trees requiring 14-25 (if not provided the maximum amount of space, trees will still grow, but they may take longer to do so). Even when there is sufficient space, a Tree’s leaves may sometimes be big enough to clip through the roof.
 * 6) Most saplings will grow indoors as long as there is either fence or no wall immediately behind the sapling; unlike other saplings, Palm trees will not grow if there is fence behind the sapling. All other walls are ignored.
 * 7) A sapling needs to be above surface level . Acorns planted on grass underground or below will not grow, even if all other conditions are met.
 * 8) On the, trees update the map data automatically, so it's possible to spot tree growth on the minimap or full screen map without needing to approach the sapling. Trees can also grow on-screen on these versions, appearing with a small shower of leaves. On the , however, saplings must be off-screen in order to become trees. They will not grow when currently in view, unlike most other plants which can grow while you watch.

Self-Spawning
Giant Glowing Mushrooms have similar space requirements to trees, but they cannot be planted; instead, they will "self-spawn", randomly appearing full-grown on Mushroom grass. Cacti need much less space, but can likewise self-spawn on any sand variant. "Infected" sand will spawn cacti which appear different according to sand type, but are otherwise identical. Jungle trees can also similarly self-spawn on Jungle grass (if there is space), but can also be planted with acorns.

Shaking
Shaking occurs when a player hits the stem of a tree with an axe, but does not fully cut it down. In order for a tree to be shaken, it must both have a "leafy" top as well as not have any blocks in a two block radius from the top. In addition to this, players can shake a maximum of 200 trees a day. After this shaking will not occur.

Note: Because of the way the function for shaking is coded, lower items on this chart have a slightly lower chance of occuring.

Forest trees
Forest trees are the most common type of tree, and can be found growing on regular grass. They can be planted on regular grass in any biome. They yield Acorns and regular Wood when harvested. Many Forest trees eventually turn into Corrupted, Crimson or Hallowed ones if the area they grow on is overtaken by these biomes.

Vanity trees
Two additional tree variants were introduced in Journey's End: yellow willow trees and pink sakura trees. Despite their different appearance, they behave identically as other forest trees. The Zoologist sells Yellow Willow Saplings and Sakura Saplings.

Corrupt & Crimson trees
Corrupt trees are purple trees found in the Corruption. They can be planted on Corrupt grass or Ebonsand in any biome. They drop acorns and Ebonwood. If planted on Ebonsand, they will be shaped more like a palm tree, but will still drop Ebonwood. Crimson trees are red trees found in the Crimson. They can be planted on Crimson grass or Crimsand in any biome. They drop acorns and Shadewood. If planted on Crimsand, they will be shaped more like a palm tree, but will still drop Shadewood. In both cases, if the ground beneath another tree type is "infected", the tree will be converted, though its shape will not change. The tree can similarly be converted back into a normal tree by using Purification Powder on them; again their shape will not change, but they will otherwise turn into the appropriate tree type for the block beneath them.

The wood produced from said trees can be used to create Iron strength tools, as well as their variants of armor, furniture and workbenches.

Jungle trees
Jungle trees are found in the Jungle, and another variant appears in the Underground Jungle. Jungle trees drop Rich Mahogany wood, but normally do not drop acorns; however, if a branch is hanging over a non-Jungle Grass Block, like regular Grass, this branch can rarely drop an Acorn. They tend to grow higher than normal trees: up to 21 blocks.

Jungle trees grow on Jungle grass, in two ways: Acorns can be planted as with most other trees, but jungle trees can also "self-spawn", like Cacti and Giant Glowing Mushrooms. Either way, the prospective tree needs the usual horizontal space, and a 24 blocks headroom to grow. This makes self-spawning fairly rare, because the larger jungle plants tend to appear first and block tree growth. Worldgen and self-spawning can create jungle trees under water, but acorns cannot be planted under water.

In Hardmode, Corruption and Crimson spread through mud, replacing it with dirt, and Jungle trees turn into the appropriate infected trees. Because the ground is converted to dirt, cleaning either infection will turn an infected tree into a Forest tree, so Jungle trees cannot be restored once they are infected.

Boreal trees
Boreal trees are found in the Snow biome. They can be planted on Snow Blocks in any biome. They drop acorns and Boreal Wood.

On the, the Snow biome contains Snowy trees which drop acorns and normal wood. Acorns planted on Snow Blocks in any biome will produce Snowy trees.

Palm trees
Palm Trees are found in the Ocean biome and Oasis mini biome, and can be planted on any regular Sand Block in any biome, though they require 30 blocks of open space above them to grow. They drop Palm Wood, and on acorns as well. There are also Corrupt, Crimson and Hallow variants, which drop Ebonwood, Shadewood, or Pearlwood respectively, rather than Palm Wood. Unlike other trees, Palm Trees require only one block of sand, and only one space is needed between the sapling and another object for the tree to grow. Palm trees usually drop only a single acorn with their wood. Planting an acorn in the Desert will yield a Palm Tree, not a Cactus.

Hallow trees
Trees found in the Hallow have a taller and triangle-shaped foliage, and exist in many different colors: They may randomly be blue, red, light green, cyan, pink, magenta, yellow and purple. They can be planted on Hallow grass in any biome. As with Corruption and Crimson, normal trees turn into Hallow trees when the Hallow reaches them, and can likewise be changed back by reverting the ground under them. Hallow trees drop acorns and Pearlwood.

Giant Glowing Mushrooms


Giant Glowing Mushrooms are handled by the game as trees, but they self-spawn (from Mushroom grass, given space) rather than growing from acorns. They grow differently underground (where the player will likely first find them) as compared to on the surface (if the player makes arrangements).
 * Giant Mushrooms on the surface (above 0 depth), will take a wider, often-branched form. When cut down, they will drop glowing mushrooms rather than wood. They rarely drop acorns or Mushroom Grass Seeds on the surface.
 * Underground Giant Mushrooms drop few Glowing Mushrooms (sometimes none) and they sometimes drop mushroom grass seeds. They have a different, branchless, appearance.

Gem Trees
Gem trees naturally generate in the Cavern layer, and can also be grown by planting a Gemcorn on stone blocks in the Underground, Cavern, or Underworld layers. There are seven types corresponding to the seven types of gems.

Gem saplings will grow at the rate of a normal tree sapling. The tree will drop 0-5 Gems of its type, 0-5 Gemcorns of its type, and 0-20 stone blocks when cut with an Axe. The type of tree is determined by the type of Gemcorn that is planted. Gemcorns can also be crafted from a gem and an acorn.

Gem trees can be used for farming gems in the early game, allowing earlier acquisition of a gem staff, robe, and/or hook.

Cactus


Cactus generate with the world and self-spawn over time on various types of sand. They will appear differently depending on the type of sand beneath them (plain/crimson/corrupt/hallowed) but in all cases they will yield cactus blocks when harvested with an axe. They cannot be planted (and do not drop acorns), but will spawn naturally given flat sand and sufficient room. They need much less space than other tree types. However they differ from trees because they grow stepwise, block by block, instead of instantly spawning full-grown. Once full-grown, they can also form a Pink Prickly Pear block on top.

Living Trees
Living Trees are huge tree shaped structures made of solid blocks that can be found in the forest biome and are created during world creation. (on Small worlds they can extend into the range of Harpies).

Similarly, can be found in large Underground Jungle cavities.

Unlike the other plants mentioned here, both sorts of Living Tree are foreground objects which block passage. They cannot be planted or grow during the game, but they can be built as a structure by the player, with appropriate wands.

Trivia

 * The description for the coconut (are you suggesting coconuts can migrate?) is a reference to a Monty Python and the Holy Grail

History
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