Getting and Growing Dark Oak Trees

Dark oak trees have been popular in Minecraft since their introduction in version 1.7.2. They are essentially a larger, darker-hued version of Minecraft’s original oak trees, and have the same leaves as them. Instead of the regular single-block trunk, dark oak trees have a thick trunk taking up four blocks of space.

A dark forest biome with dark oak trees and giant red mushrooms. — Dark forest biome close-up.

Their dark colored wood adds a lot of contrast to player builds, while their size makes it easier to chop large amounts of wood at once.

They can be chopped by hand or axe to obtain dark oak logs. Letting the leaves despawn naturally, or breaking them by hand, will allow players the chance to obtain sticks, dark oak saplings, and apples. If the leaves are broken while holding shears, players can obtain the leaves.

What Can Be Made From Dark Oak Wood?

As with all Minecraft trees, players can use dark oak logs to craft dark oak planks, which can be used for any recipe requiring wooden planks. This includes crafting things like wooden tools and smithing tables. Using dark oak wood will not affect the color of these items. The logs can also be smelted in a furnace to create charcoal.

However, using dark oak planks to craft certain blocks will affect the color of the completed item. Blocks affected in this way will contain “Dark Oak” in their name. They include:

Dark Oak Logs
Dark Oak Wood
Stripped Dark Oak Logs
Stripped Dark Oak Wood
Dark Oak Planks
Dark Oak Stairs
Dark Oak Slabs
Dark Oak Fences and Fence Gates
Dark Oak Doors and Trapdoors
Dark Oak Pressure Plates
Dark Oak Buttons
Dark Oak Signs and Hanging Signs
Dark Oak Boats, with and without chests.

All of the items that change in appearance if they are crafted using dark oak wood. — Crafted items that are affected by using dark oak wood.

Finding Dark Oak Trees

Dark Forest Biomes / Roofed Forest Biomes

Depending on the version of Minecraft you play, the biomes dark oak trees are found in will be called either “Dark Forest Biomes” or “Roofed Forest Biomes”. On PC, Java edition refers to it as a “dark forest” biome, while Bedrock calls it a “roofed forest” biome.

These biomes are the only ones that dark oak trees naturally grow in. You can tell them apart from other biomes because they have giant red and brown mushrooms growing between the dark oak trees. Due to the large size of the trees, the biomes tend to be darker and full of hostile mobs. Explore them cautiously.

A dark oak forest biome with with giant mushrooms and dark oak trees, split in half by a river. — A dark forest biome in Java.

Woodland Mansions

A woodland mansion towering over a forest. — A Woodland Mansion.

Depending on your version of Minecraft, Woodland Mansions will spawn in either dark forest biomes or roofed forest biomes. They can potentially contain two rooms that contain smaller dark oak trees: the tree-chopping room and the nature room. These smaller dark oak trees cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Mansions can also contain a sapling room with dark oak saplings.

Looting a Woodland Mansion is much more dangerous than exploring a Dark Forest biome because it is filled with hostile mobs, including indicators, evokers, and allays. However, with the high risk comes lots of good loot, and the potential to get lots of dark oak saplings without having to cut the trees down yourself.

Nature Room

The nature room is a regular room that can be generated within a Woodland Mansion. It will be generated with one small dark oak tree surrounded by stone. It can be chopped down to obtain dark oak logs and, hopefully, some dark oak saplings.

Sapling Room

The sapling room is a regular room in the Woodland Mansion and the one that provides the most dark oak saplings. They are stored on dirt shelves on the walls, with the room containing a chest with additional saplings.

The saplings can be easily broken and picked up by hand. The room in the image had 58 saplings on the walls alone.

A Woodland Mansion sapling room after all of the saplings have been looted. — The saplings on the walls can be looted.

There were an additional 28 saplings in the room’s chest.

The treasure found in a sapling room; this one contains 28 saplings. — The room’s chest also contains dark oak saplings.

That means from this room alone, the player could obtain around 86 saplings, enough to grow 21 trees! The number will vary, but that’s a pretty decent haul.

Tree-Chopping Room

The Tree-Chopping room is a secret room in the Woodland Mansion. It can be found by chopping down a wall between regular rooms.

This image shows what a Woodland Mansion wall will look like if there is a secret room behind it. — This wall indicates a secret room in a Woodland Mansion.

After cutting a hole in the wall, there will be a small dark oak tree planted in dirt blocks surrounded by dark oak logs. There will also be a chest containing an iron axe with the Efficiency 1 enchantment.

A hidden Tree-Cutting room in a Woodland Mansion. — Breaking the wall reveals a tree-cutting room!

It provides players with more dark oak logs than the nature room, but with about the same amount of saplings.

Growing Dark Oak Trees

Space Requirements

Since dark oak trees are much larger than other trees, they need more space to grow. There are a few rules to abide by to grow your own dark oaks in your Minecraft World.

Firstly, the base of the tree requires four blocks of free space in a 2×2 grid.

Podzol placed in a 2x2 square, showing how dark oak saplings must be planted. — The podzol shows the 2×2 grid dark oak saplings must be planted in.

Secondly, in relation to buildings and other structures, there should be at least two blocks between the structure and the dark oak tree. Keeping this much space will ensure that the tree grows, but if there is enough vertical room you may be able to plant trees with only one block between them and a nearby structure.

Four saplings are placed in the 4x4 grid of podzol. Blue concrete extends out for two blocks on either side to illustrate how far structures must be for a dark oak tree to grow. — There should be at least two blocks between structures and a growing dark oak tree.

While they may not be able to grow directly next to structures, dark oak trees can be placed directly next to other trees. However, when planting dark oak trees directly next to each other, their leaves may overlap with each other. This could reduce the number of saplings and other drops you get from your trees.

On the right, a dark oak tree grows pressed directly against a regular oak tree. In the back left, multiple dark oak trees are grown directly next to each other to form one "giant" dark oak tree. — On the right side, a dark oak tree grows next to a regular oak tree. In the back left, multiple dark oak trees are planted and grown right next to each other.

Lastly, there should be room for the saplings to grow at least eight blocks high.

This image depicts how much empty space should be left above dark oak saplings for the tree to grow. — Dark oak saplings need at least 8 blocks of vertical space to grow.

Any obstructions, like placing blocks too close, may prevent your trees from growing.

Planting

Dark oak saplings must be planted in a 2×2 grid, with each tree taking four saplings. Dark oak trees cannot be grown by planting one sapling alone.

They can be planted on multiple blocks, including:

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

Start by selecting the saplings in your inventory to place them in your hand. On PC, plant a sapling by right-clicking on the ground where you would like to place it. In console versions of the game, plant the sapling by pressing the button for item interactions, like eating food. This is LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation, and ZL on the Nintendo Switch. Repeat this until all four saplings are planted as in the image below.

Four dark oak saplings planted in a 2x2 square. — Planted dark oak saplings.

After planting, the player can leave them alone to grow, or speed up the process using bone meal.

Grow Trees Faster with Bone Meal

To make bone meal, just place one or more bones in the crafting grid in your inventory. Each bone will produce three bone meals.

The bone meal crafting recipe: it is one bone to create three bone meal. — Bone meal recipe.

To use the bone meal, right-click your mouse or use the same button as was used to plant the trees. Choose one sapling of the four and hold the button to use the bone meals repeatedly until the tree grows. You will know it is working if green particles appear on the sapling you’re interacting with and the amount of bone meal in your inventory is decreasing.

Using bone meal on a sapling will cause green particle effects on the sapling. — Pixellation effect from using bone meal to grow trees.

After using around five bone meals, a new dark oak tree will grow instantly!

A dark oak tree that was quickly grown using bone meal. It's identical to other dark oak trees. — The saplings have grown a new tree.

Dying Dark Oak – Bedrock and Education Editions

In Bedrock and Education Editions, there is a chance for dark oaks to generate as “dying trees”. They can either generate naturally or be grown by sapling. All of the exposed logs in the trunk of the tree will be covered with vines to represent its dying state.

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