Leaves

Leaves are transparent blocks that generate as part of trees and are sources of their respective saplings. They dissipate over time when not attached to logs, but persist when placed by players. Falling-leaf particles occasionally drop from leaves.

Breaking

Hoes are the default tools for breaking leaves, but leaves can be obtained only with shears or tools enchanted with Silk Touch.

Natural generation

Each type of leaves occurs naturally on their respective type of trees throughout the Overworld. In addition to this:

Oak leaves generate as part of: Jungle bushes Plains villages Trial chambers Abandoned camps

Dark oak leaves generate as part of woodland mansions.

Post-generation

Leaves generate as part of trees grown from saplings, azaleas, or mangrove propagules.

Usage

Leaves from trees spontaneously decay (disappear) when they receive a block tick if they are not connected to any log or wood blocks, stripped or otherwise, either directly or via other leaf blocks, with a maximum distance of 6 blocks or 4 blocks. , this is determined using the block tag, whereas , the list of blocks is hardcoded. The distance is taxicab distance, but can cross corners. Leaves placed by players never decay. Bamboo does not count as a log for this purpose. Leaves that decay, or are destroyed without using Silk Touch or shears, yield saplings 5% () of the time, sticks 2% of the time, and otherwise nothing. Jungle leaves drop saplings 2.5% () of the time. Oak and dark oak leaves also have a separate but additional 0.5% () chance of dropping an apple, making it extremely rare but possible for a single leaf to drop a sapling, a stick and an apple at the same time. Rates are increased by the Fortune enchantment. Leaves that are burned do not yield saplings or apples. Oak, jungle, acacia, dark oak, and mangrove leaves take on a different shade of green depending on the biome in which they are placed. Leaves are always transparent to light but cannot be seen through when the graphics is set to "Fast" or fancy leaves are turned off; the transparent regions are instead dark green. They diffuse sky light, causing the shadows they cast under trees. Leaf blocks can be waterlogged although they are full blocks. Water does not spread out, and waterlogged leaves follow the same rules as any other waterlogged block. When concrete powder is placed on any side of the waterlogged leaves it turns into concrete, and the leaf block remains waterlogged. Although leaves behave as solid blocks by preventing entities from moving through them, they also behave as non-solid, in that leaves do not prevent chests from opening. Applying bone meal to mangrove leaves with a space beneath produces a hanging mangrove propagule with age=0.

Redstone component

The state of a leaves block—including a player-placed block—changes after 1 game tick (half a redstone tick) when the distance to the nearest log or wood block changes, up to 6 blocks of leaves away. Observers facing away from the leaves detect this change and transmit a redstone signal in the same game tick, making leaves useful for redstone signal transmission. This has been called "Leafstone" by the Minecraft Community.

Piston interactivity

Leaves are destroyed when pushed by pistons. They do not stick to sticky pistons, slime blocks, or honey blocks.