Minecraft 1.17- Lush Cave Plants !

If you are as obsessed with organic builds as I am then you can’t wait for the new Minecraft 1.17 update to hit us! Mojang has been teasing Java players everywhere with their snapshots but not many of them really appealed to me until the last 2. We finally get to take a look at the beautiful new foliage expected in this year’s update. Lush Caves promised  many new plants, some that were even supposed to be edible and even new water plants. They finally have delivered!  While many other blocks were added to the recent snapshots, this article focuses only on the plant-life. If you crave a closer look at the fabulous glow squid, you’ll have to wait for my next article. At the time of this article, Mojang currently has not produced a generated Lush Cave. So it’s unclear how these blocks will naturally generate in your Minecraft world. If you are interested in seeing what I think Lush Caves should look like, please check my latest video where I create a Lush Cave. 

Rooted Dirt & Hanging Roots

The hanging root is a new block which adds a lot of character to a cave build but more importantly and currently much prized by this Minecrafter, is it’s counterpart mother block known as the Rooted Dirt. Finally another brilliant dirt block to help us make out beautiful paths and roads. As an organic builder, I really love alternatives to the average dirt block and coarse dirt is a huge part of my build process. This new Rooted Dirt block looks outstanding next to our Crop Blocks, our Path Blocks and of course our Coarse Dirt Blocks.

Azaleas

There are 3 new azalea blocks in the current snapshot. 2 with the cute magenta flowers and one without. Finally! A leaf block with flowers. This is going to really come in handy when doing any landscaping but I think most of us are thrilled to use this around our houses and even included in custom trees. The other two hedge azalea bushes resemble little hedges or bushes. They have flat tops which could also make them a decent table in house builds.

Moss Block & Carpet

This is going to be the most important block if the azaleas have a lot of value for you because you can bonemeal the moss block and it will produce all the azalea plants. It will also produce the new moss carpet!  This is basically just like regular carpet in the game but has a different green hue and will be excellent for hiding light in your organic cave builds. Additionally, many of us have been looking for a way to finish the sides of landscapes with a solid grass block rather than having a lot of dirt exposed as if currently the problem with vanilla Minecraft. Without using a modifier or texture pack to do so, we’ve been left with having to create retaining walls, stone walls and even use things like green cement or wool to try and create a grassy edge. The Moss Block could be just the thing to use! However, it does not blend in with the grass block so you’ll most likely have to replace your entire lawn with moss in order to create a flawless grassy yard.

Glow Berries

A new food source! Much like it’s above-ground berry cousin known classically as the obnoxious prickly bush many a Minecrafter has repeatedly been bitten by, the Glow Berry can be obtained by breaking the mother plant. Instead of a bush like the sweet berries however, glow berries grow on a beautiful lush vine which can be bonemealed to produce the love orange glowing fruit. The fruit doesn’t give off a very high level light, instead it illuminates slightly at a light level of 6 per block. To put that into perspective, a lantern gives off a light level of 13. Yet the glow berries really look lovely and you can create a very long vine full of the light birthing fruit.

Glow Lichen

This one is another real game changer for me and as I was designing my own Lush Cave in the absence of Mojang’s ability to release anything, I found that this plant transformed the simple stone block dramatically! At first the stone block looked rather out of place with the new blocks. The grey tones clashed with many of the tones in the new rooted dirt block but by adding the glow lichen over it, the stone blended perfectly with the new blocks. Stone definitely has a place in the new lush caves with this quiet little vine. Glow lichen is true to its name. It does indeed glow but not a whole lot. This plant does not emit a tremendous amount of light, even less than the glow berries with a light level of just 4. But it’s beautiful and such a unique set of colors. I can also see this going really well with a Prismarine build.

Drip Leaf

Mojang certainly isn’t ignoring the need for water in our caves. We finally have another plant to put in our ponds!  The Drip Leaf is a unique plant that comes in two forms, Big and Small. Each can be grown to extend out of the water, and the Big Drip Leaf can even be placed outside of water on the right block. The Big Dripleaf has an interesting quality however. When you jump on the leaf, it will react by turning downward, sliding the player down off of the leaf. This will make an interesting addition to traps and possibly parkour courses.

Thank you so much for reading this article and I would love to see what you create with these lovely new plants!  Follow me on Twitch and join my community on Discord. Post your creations in the build section. Until next time, keep mining, keep crafting, keep creating!