Birch

Birch

Tree

Sapling

Biomes	Birch Forest Dark Forest Forest Meadow Old Growth Birch Forest
Grows on	Dirt Grass Block Coarse Dirt Podzol Mycelium
Fruit	None
Generates in existing chunks	Yes
Consists of	Birch Log Birch Leaves Bee Nest

{
    "title": "Birch",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "(link to Biome article, displayed as Biomes)"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "Grows on"
        },
        {
            "field": "None",
            "label": "Fruit"
        },
        {
            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "Generates in<br>existing chunks"
        },
        {
            "field": "\n* <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite birch-log.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Birch Log|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Birch Log article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Birch Log</span>)</span>\n* <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite birch-leaves.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Birch Leaves|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Birch Leaves article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Birch Leaves</span>)</span>\n* <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite bee-nest.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Bee Nest|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Bee Nest article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Bee Nest</span>)</span>",
            "label": "Consists of"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [],
    "images": [
        "Birch Tree.png",
        "Tall Birch Tree.png",
        "Birch Sapling.png"
    ]
}

A birch is a tree that appears similar to a common oak in terms of height and leaves, but with light bark and pale wood. It is most commonly found in birch forest biomes. Super birches are tall birch trees found only in old growth birch forest biomes and cannot be grown with saplings. As with oaks and cherries, a birch tree grown near flowers can generate with a bee nest attached.

Appearance

Birches come in two different variants:

• Shorter birches can be grown by the player using birch saplings and are found in forest, birch forest, dark forest and meadow biomes.
• A taller, rare tree that can only be found in old growth birch forests and rarely in meadows.

Birches that are grown from saplings grow to be 5 to 7 blocks tall, while birches in the old growth birch forest biome can generate with trunks up to 13 blocks in height.

Leaf arrangement

Layer 1 (top)

Layer 2

Layers 3 and 4

All birches lack branches. Birches always grow around 50 to 60 leaves. The leaf distributions are shown visually above, each table cell representing one 'slice' of the tree viewed from above. The transparent leaves represent areas where leaves may grow, but do not always. The growth pattern, in detail, is as follows:

• The topmost row is one above the height of the tree and always has exactly 5 leaves: one above the log and four orthogonally adjacent to it, forming a + shape.
  • 5 leaves
• The second row is the top of the trunk and also has 4 leaves adjacent to it. Diagonal leaf blocks grow from a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 corners of the log.
  • 5 - 7 leaves
• The third row has the log in the middle, surrounded orthogonally and diagonally by leaf blocks. Those 8 leaf blocks are also surrounded orthogonally, for an additional 12 leaf blocks. One can think of this as a 5×5 space where every block is leaves except the four corners. These corners are randomly filled with between 0 and 4 leaves, although having all four filled is rare.
  • 20 - 24 leaves
• The fourth row generates with the same rules like the third and thus has a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 24 leaf blocks.
  • 20 - 24 leaves
• The fifth and sixth (bottom) rows contain no leaves, only the log in the center. If the tree is 6 or 7 blocks tall, the additional 1 or 2 rows at the bottom are also just a log.
  • No leaves

Small oak and 1×1 jungle trees also have this arrangement of leaves.

Generation

The birch variants spawn naturally in the indicated biomes:

Biome	Birch	Super Birch
Dark Forest	Yes	No
Forest	Yes	No
Birch Forest	Yes	No
Meadow	Yes	Yes
Old Growth Birch Forest	No	Yes

Blocks and items

These items can be obtained from birches:

• Bee Nest (if present on a tree near flowers)
• Birch Leaves (harvested with shears)
• Birch Log (harvested with any tool including hands)
• Birch Planks (created from a log in the inventory crafting grid)
• Birch Sapling (chance of dropping when breaking leaves)
• Stripped Birch Log (created by using an axe on a log)
• Stick (chance of dropping when breaking leaves)

Planting

Birch saplings can be planted on:

• Dirt
• Grass Block
• Coarse Dirt
• Podzol
• Mycelium
• Rooted Dirt
• Moss Block
• Pale Moss Block
• Farmland
• Mud
• Muddy Mangrove Roots

Only normal birches can be grown from saplings. Tall birches only generate naturally in the world.

Birches require a 3×3 column of unobstructed space at least 6 blocks above the sapling to grow (7 blocks including the sapling itself). Additionally, birches require 5×5 layers without obstruction for the top 3 layers of its final height. No horizontal clearance is needed at the base of the tree (a sapling planted in a hole 1 block deep can still grow).

A birch grown from a sapling and within 2 blocks of a flower has a 5% chance of having a bee nest containing 2–3 bees.

Fallen birches

A fallen birch may consist of a single upright log, or a stump. Logs lying on their side are often found 1–2 blocks from the stump. They occasionally have mushrooms on top.

A fallen birch has a log length of 5–8 blocks. A fallen tall birch has a log length of 5–15 blocks. The stump is never covered in vines.

Foliage colors

Birch leaves do not follow the foliage color rules that cause the trees to appear in different colors in different biomes. Birch leaves are always the same color regardless of the biome. In Bedrock Edition, however, they turn white as other leaves do during snowfall in snowy biomes.

Data values

ID

This section is missing information about: Explanations for the numbers in the bees tree IDs.

 

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier
[No displayed name]	birch_bees_0002
[No displayed name]	birch_bees_002
[No displayed name]	birch_bees_005
[No displayed name]	birch
[No displayed name]	super_birch_bees_0002
[No displayed name]	super_birch_bees

Config

History

Issues

Issues relating to "Birch" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• In real life, a birch is any member of the Betula genus of trees.

Gallery

• 
  A fallen birch tree.
• 
  An acacia tree that grew through a birch tree.
• 
  Tall birch trees in a old growth birch forest biome.

Odd generation

• 
  A lone birch tree in a cavern.
• 
  A birch tree that generated on a stone block over a lava pit.
• 
  A birch tree on the sand, caused when the dirt it was on was replaced by sand.
• 
  A fallen birch where most of the logs are higher than the base.

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