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Cactus
| Transparent |
Yes |
|---|---|
| Luminance |
0 |
| Blast resistance |
2 |
| Tool |
Any tool |
| Renewable |
Yes |
| Stackable |
Yes (64) |
| Flammable |
No |
| Experience |
Smelted: 0.2 in Bedrock Edition or 1.0 in Java Edition |
| Drops |
Itself |
| Data value |
dec: 81 hex: 51 bin: 1010001 |
| Namespaced ID |
cactus |
|
“ |
|
„ |
| — Tom Stone[1] |
A cactus is a plant block that generates naturally in dry areas.
Contents
Obtaining[edit]
A cactus can be mined by hand without taking damage. The tool used to mine the cactus does not affect mining speed.
| Block | Cactus | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 0.4 | |
| Breaking time | ||
| Hand | 0.65 | |
When the spot a cactus is placed in becomes unsuitable, such as when a solid block is placed next to it or its supporting block is removed, the cactus block uproots and drops as an item.
A cactus also removes and drops itself as an item, if a piston tries to push it (trying to pull it does nothing) or moves a block into its space.
Using a sign on the side of a cactus causes both the sign and the cactus to drop as items.
Natural generation[edit]
Cacti naturally occur in desert and badlands biomes(twice more common in desert than in badlands). They generate as one (11⁄18 chance), two (5⁄18 chance), or three (2⁄18 chance) blocks tall. Rarely taller cacti can be found if generation chooses to generate another on top of one already generated (although not as commonly as sugar cane).
A potted cactus can also be found in an igloo with a basement. Potted cacti and 3 block cactus also found in some desert village buildings.
Cactus can be found in 80.6% of desert village house chests in stacks of 1–4.
In Bedrock Edition they can be found in 50.0% of bonus chests in stacks of 1–2.
Farming[edit]
Cacti naturally grow to a height of three blocks, adding a block of height when the top cactus block has received 16 random ticks (i.e. on average every 18 minutes, but the actual rate can vary widely). Bone meal does not work on cacti to speed its growth. A cactus does not need light to grow and is non-flammable. If a cactus has space directly above it, it grows even if the newly-grown block would immediately break due to adjacent blocks.
Trading[edit]
Wandering traders sell cactus for three emeralds.
Usage[edit]
A cactus block may be placed only on sand or another cactus block. A cactus breaks itself (and drops as an item) if any block with a solid material, or lava, occupies any of the 4 horizontally adjacent blocks. It also breaks if on sand and the block above is water or lava. In the Legacy Console Edition, a cactus also breaks if a bed is placed next to it.
When any entity, including players and mobs, touches a cactus, 1
damage is taken every 0.5 seconds. Damage from touching a cactus is reduced by armor, but touching it also damages the armor. Mobs do not avoid cacti when they pathfind.
Cacti destroy any items that come into contact with them, including cactus blocks harvested above them.
When a minecart hits a cactus block, the minecart drops as an item and is often destroyed, although a hopper can pick it up faster.
A cactus can also be placed in a flower pot, where it is rendered harmless.
A cactus (excluding its spines) is 7⁄8 of a block in width (the same as chests) and a full block in height, however the collision box is 15⁄16 of a block high.
Smelting ingredient[edit]
Cooking a cactus in a furnace results in green dye, giving 1 point of experience for each cactus item cooked.
| Name | Ingredients | Smelting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Green Dye | Cactus + Any fuel |
Composting[edit]
Placing a cactus into a composter has a 50% chance of raising the compost level by 1.
Data values[edit]
Block data[edit]
In Bedrock Edition, cacti use the following data values:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Freshly planted cactus. |
| 1 to 15 | The data value is incremented at random intervals. When it becomes 15, a new cactus block is created on top as long as the total height does not exceed 3. |
Block states[edit]
| Name | Default value | Allowed values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| age | 0 | 0123456789101112131415 | A freshly-planted cactus – and a cactus which has just grown cactus above it – each have an age of 0. The age is incremented at random intervals. At age 15, a cactus may try to grow more cactus above it. |
History[edit]
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.6 |  The cactus has now been added to the game.
| ||||
Players are hurt 7 while breaking them.
| |||||
| The cactus is a full block and acts identically to any one. | |||||
| v1.0.7 | Players are now hurt 1 while breaking them. | ||||
| v1.0.11 | Cacti can now be placed only on sand, and now have the requirement that the space around it has to be empty. Previously, cacti could be placed to form a damaging floor: both players and mobs would take half a heart of damage when they walk on a cactus block. This made it useful for traps, such as a hallway with a cactus block floor that would kill all mobs that walked on it. | ||||
| Collecting cacti no longer hurts the player. | |||||
 The model and texture have now been updated to have spines around the block. | |||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.2 | Cactus can now be smelted, giving cactus green. | ||||
| 1.8 | ? | When dropped onto the world, the cactus item is now no longer slightly larger than most other blocks, despite the fact that they are visibly smaller when placed. This is because it uses the larger 'item' size, rather than the 'block' size. | |||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.9 | 15w49a | Cacti now break if adjacent to lava, or if on sand and the block above is water or lava. | |||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 81. | |||
| 1.14 | 18w43a |  The cactus' texture has now been changed. | |||
| 18w44a | The cactus' texture has now been changed, once again. | ||||
| 19w03a | Placing a cactus into the new composter has a 20% chance of raising the compost level by 1. | ||||
| 19w05a | Cacti now has a 50% chance of increasing the compost level in a composter by 1. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.1.3 | Added cacti. | ||||
| 0.2.0 | Cacti are now available in the creative mode inventory. | ||||
| 0.4.0 | Cacti now appear 3D in the inventory and when dropped. | ||||
| Cacti now obey regular placement exceptions when being placed underwater or on snow. | |||||
| 0.5.0 | Cacti are now available from the nether reactor. | ||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Cacti are now no longer available from the nether reactor. | |||
| ? |  The spines behind cacti now render regardless of where viewed from. This may have happened after 1.0. | ||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Potted cacti now generate in the basements of igloos. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.2.0 | beta 1.2.0.2 | Cacti are now found inside bonus chests. | |||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | 3 block tall cactus and potted cactus now generate in new desert village house. | |||
| Cactus can be bought from wandering trader. | |||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.1 | Cactus can be found desert village house chest. | |||
| Cactus can be used to fill composter. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Added cacti. | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added cacti. | ||||
In older versions, endermen could place cacti on any block.
Issues[edit]
Issues relating to "Cactus" or "Cacti" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[edit]
- The bottom of a cactus block does not damage the player.
- Cacti can be placed underwater, provided they are placed on sand, and they grow if they break the surface.
- Cacti can be placed next to saplings, but the cactus breaks when the tree grows.
- Endermen can move and place cacti. Thus, they can increase the cactus population in deserts by moving cactus blocks as they grow.
- Signs can be placed on top of cacti.
- It is possible for cacti to generate on blocks other than sand due to generated structures; refer to the gallery for examples.
- Cactus can be used in the desert to see if the player is in a newly generated area. If most of the cacti around the player is only one block high, then it is most likely new land.
- Dying from touching a cactus displays "[playername] was pricked to death" in the chat messages.
- It is possible to place blocks on top of a cactus.
- It is possible to place redstone next to a cactus block and the block won't be destroyed.
- By placing more cactus blocks on top of a cactus, it is possible to create an arbitrarily tall cactus. However, it does not grow naturally.
- Chorus flowers, a fully solid block, can be placed next to cacti without it breaking.
Gallery[edit]
Naturally occurring cacti.
Naturally occurring cacti.
A small sized automatic cactus farm.
Cacti generated near the Far Lands.
Underside[edit]
The bottom of a cactus seen with the "floating cactus" bug (see below).
The bottom of a cactus seen on a falling item.
The bottom of a cactus seen on a held item.
The bottom of a cactus seen with the help of an item frame.
Odd generation[edit]
Naturally floating "ghost cactus."
A cactus generated on planks in a village.
Yet another village cactus.
Heights[edit]
A freshly generated 1 block tall cactus.
A natural 2 block tall cactus.
A naturally occurring four block tall cactus, relatively uncommon.
A naturally occurring six block tall cactus, very rare.
A natural eight-block-tall cactus, extremely rare.
A natural nine block tall cactus, ridiculously rare.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Block of the Week: Cactus" – Minecraft.net
