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Plant token

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This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.


The [OBJECT:PLANT] token begins the definition of a plant raw file. Following this, each new plant definition begins with the [PLANT:plant_ID] token, where plant_ID is a unique identifier for the plant, and that plant's properties are then defined using the tokens listed below.


Basic tokens[edit]

These tokens are specified for all plants and define their most basic characteristics.

Token Arguments Description
NAME
  • name
The singular form of the plant's name as seen in-game.
NAME_PLURAL
  • name
The plural form of the plant's name as seen in-game.
ADJ
  • adjective
The word or phrase used to describe items made from this plant.
ALL_NAMES
  • name
Sets the NAME, NAME_PLURAL, and ADJ to the specified string.
PREFSTRING
  • reason
What dwarves can like this object for (e.g. "Urist likes plump helmets for their rounded tops.")
MATERIAL
  • material_name
Starts defining a new local plant material with the given name. Must be followed with material definition tokens defining the material's properties.
USE_MATERIAL
  • material_name
  • local_material
Starts defining a new local plant material with the given name and using the properties of another local plant material. May be followed with material definition tokens to further define its properties or change the properties imported from the local plant material.
USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE
  • material_name
  • template_name
Starts defining a new local plant material with the name material_name and using the properties of the specified MATERIAL_TEMPLATE with the name template_name. May be followed with material definition tokens to further define its properties or change the properties imported from the template material.
SELECT_MATERIALv50.13
  • material_name
Selects a previously defined local plant material for subsequent modification. Unlike with creature tokens, "ALL" cannot be specified here.
BASIC_MAT Sets the basic material of the plant. This defines what is harvested when the plant itself, rather than a growth, is picked. According to Toady, you can use other materials (for instance, iron) but the game may hiccup on plants that aren't structurally plants. For crops, said material should have [STRUCTURAL_PLANT_MAT] to permit proper stockpiling. Generally, this should be "LOCAL_PLANT_MAT:material_name", using a material defined using MATERIAL, USE_MATERIAL, or USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE. The only way to remove the plant's basic material entry (e.g. "soybean plant") from every stockpile category is to remove this token, but this will cause problems with farming the plant in a farm plot and harvesting the whole wild plant if that's possible.

Environment tokens[edit]

These tokens, also applicable to all plants, specify where the plants grow.

Token Arguments Description
UNDERGROUND_DEPTH
  • minimum
  • maximum
Designates the highest and lowest cavern levels that the plant can appear in if its biome is subterranean. Dwarven civilizations will only export (via the embark screen or caravans) things that are available at depth 1. Defaults to 0:0 (surface only).
GOOD Restricts the plant to growing in Good regions. Cannot be combined with [EVIL].
EVIL Restricts the plant to growing in Evil regions. Cannot be combined with [GOOD].
SAVAGE Restricts the plant to growing in Savage regions (regardless of alignment).
FREQUENCY
  • freq (0-100)
How frequently this plant is generated in a particular area. Defaults to 50. Plants with valid biome tokens and [FREQUENCY:0] will not grow in the wild, but will still be available for entity use and farm plots.
WET Restricts the plant to grow near natural water features. A plant with [WET] may be very common or very rare in an area, depending on how many water features that area has. Note that they will not grow next to dwarf-filled channels, since it explicitly checks the tile type (e.g. "River", "River Source", "Brook", "Murky Pool", and variants thereof). Combining this with [DRY] causes it to be ignord.
DRY Restricts the plant to grow away from natural water features. Combining this with [WET] causes it to be ignored.
BIOME
  • biome
What biome this plant appears in.

Growth tokens[edit]

These tokens are used for all plants and specify growths growing on a plant.

Edible or otherwise usable growths should have [STOCKPILE_PLANT_GROWTH] in their material definitions for proper stockpiling. This also lets them be collected from plant gathering and farming jobs.

Token Arguments Description
GROWTH
  • name
Defines a plant growth. Takes the below tokens as arguments.
SELECT_GROWTHv50.13
  • name
Selects a previously-defined plant growth. Any tokens which follow this will further modify the selected growth.
GROWTH_NAME
  • singular
  • plural (STP for standard plural)
The name of a plant growth.
GROWTH_ITEM Specifies what item this growth is and what it is made of. Generally, the item type should be PLANT_GROWTH:NONE.
GROWTH_HOST_TILE
  • plant part
Specifies on which part of the plant or tree the growth appears, usually for multi-tile trees. Valid tokens are:
  • TWIGS
  • BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS / LIGHT_BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS
  • BRANCHES / LIGHT_BRANCHES
  • ALL_BRANCHES_AND_TWIGS
  • HEAVY_BRANCHES / DIRECTED_BRANCHES
  • HEAVY_BRANCHES_AND_TRUNK / DIRECTED_BRANCHES_AND_TRUNK
  • TRUNK
  • ROOTS
  • CAP
  • SAPLING
GROWTH_TRUNK_HEIGHT_PERC
  • start percent (0-100+)
  • end percent (0-100+)
Controls the height on the trunk between which the growth begins to appear. The first value is the percent of the trunk height where the growth begins appearing: 0 will cause growths to appear starting above the first tile; 100 will cause growths to appear only at the topmost trunk tile. Can be larger than 100 for trees that have growths on branches extending higher than the trunk.

A value of -1 for the second number appears to make the growths extend all the way to the top of the trunk.

GROWTH_DENSITY
  • integer
Currently has no effect.
GROWTH_TIMING
  • time start:end (0-403200)
Specifies at which part of the year the growth appears. Default is all year round.

A single growth can only have one GROWTH_TIMING tag. If multiple are declared, the last one will be used. To make a growth appear multiple times during the year, you need to create a different growth for every GROWTH_TIMING interval. By using the same material for all of the duplicate growths, all of them will be stockpiled together and be eligible for the same reactions. Edible/brewable growths will have separate entries in the kitchen menu, though.

There is no known way to declare a growth timing that lasts from winter into spring. Including numbers below 0 or above 403200 in the range will make the growth available at all times, as though you hadn't defined a growth timing at all. So will including a range for which the start time is later than the end time.

This has no effect on farmed growths; all eligible growths that have [STOCKPILE_PLANT_GROWTH] in their materials will be harvested, regardless of if they are currently within their growth timing or not.

GROWTH_PRINT
  • overworld tile
  • item tile
  • color
  • time (0-403200) start:end, ALL, or NONE
  • priority
Specifies the appearance of the growth. Can be specified more than once, for example for autumn leaves. Transitions between different timing periods will happen gradually over the course of 2000 ticks.

Priority seems to control what to display when there would be multiple symbols on a tile in ASCII mode. A higher number takes priority over a lower number. Example: if a LEAVES growth has a priority of 1 and a FRUIT growth has a priority of 3, the fruit growth will be the symbol shown when it is present.

The GROWTH_PRINT tile will only be displayed when the growth in question is actually present, even if its timing parameter is ALL.

In graphics mode, any growth being displayed will cause the SHRUB graphic to be used, and no growths available will display the SHRUB_PICKED graphic.

GROWTH_HAS_SEED The growth drops a seed if eaten raw.
GROWTH_DROPS_OFF Growths drop from the plant, producing a cloud of items which fall on the ground, which herbalists can collect.
GROWTH_DROPS_OFF_NO_CLOUD Growths drop collectable items from the plant without producing item clouds.

Tree tokens[edit]

These tokens are used only for trees.

Token Arguments Description
TREE Makes the plant into a tree. Cutting down the tree will yield logs made of this material. Setting the material to NONE will give no wood from this tree.
TRUNK_NAME
  • name
What the trunk of the tree is named.
MAX_TRUNK_HEIGHT
  • 1-8
The maximum z-level height of a mature tree's trunk, starting from about two z-levels above ground and going up.
MAX_TRUNK_DIAMETER
  • 1-3
Upper limit of trunk thickness, in tiles. Counted separately for all branching trunks. Has a geometric effect on log yield.
TRUNK_PERIOD
  • integer
The number of years the trunk takes to grow one Z-level upward.
TRUNK_WIDTH_PERIOD
  • integer
The number of years the trunk takes to grow another tile wider.
LIGHT_BRANCHES_NAME
  • name
What thin branches of the tree are named.
BRANCH_DENSITY / LIGHT_BRANCHES_DENSITY
  • integer
How dense the branches grow on this tree.
BRANCH_RADIUS / LIGHT_BRANCH_RADIUS
  • integer
The radius to which branches can reach. Appears to never reach further than seven tiles from the centre. Does not depend on the trunk branching amount or where trunks are. The values used in the game go from 0-3. Higher values than that can cause crashes. Bug:10419
HEAVY_BRANCHES_NAME / DIRECTED_BRANCHES_NAME
  • name
What thick branches of the tree are named.
HEAVY_BRANCH_DENSITY / DIRECTED_BRANCH_DENSITY
  • integer
Similar to BRANCH_DENSITY for thick branches.
HEAVY_BRANCH_RADIUS / DIRECTED_BRANCH_RADIUS
  • integer
Similar as BRANCH_DENSITY for thick branches. Values outside 0-3 can cause crashes. Bug:10419
TRUNK_BRANCHING
  • integer
How much the trunk branches out. 0 makes the trunk straight.
ROOT_NAME / ROOTS_NAME
  • name
What the roots of the tree are named.
ROOT_DENSITY
  • integer
Density of the root growth.
ROOT_RADIUS
  • integer
How wide the roots reach out.
TWIGS_NAME
  • name
What the twigs of the tree are named.
TWIGS_SIDE_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear on the side of branches. Defaults to 1.
TWIGS_ABOVE_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear above branches. Defaults to 1.
TWIGS_BELOW_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear below branches. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_SIDE_HEAVY_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear on the side of heavy branches. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_ABOVE_HEAVY_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear above heavy branches. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_BELOW_HEAVY_BRANCHES
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear below heavy branches. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_SIDE_TRUNK
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear on the side of the trunk. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_ABOVE_TRUNK
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear above the trunk. Defaults to 0.
TWIGS_BELOW_TRUNK
  • boolean (0 or 1)
Twigs appear below the trunk. Defaults to 0.
TREE_HAS_MUSHROOM_CAP The tree has a rounded cap-hood like a giant mushroom. This severely stunts a tree's maximum height. Bug:7313
CAP_NAME
  • name
What this mushroom-cap is called. Only makes sense with TREE_HAS_MUSHROOM_CAP.
CAP_PERIOD
  • integer
Similar to the other PERIOD tags, influences the rate of the mushroom cap growth. Only makes sense with TREE_HAS_MUSHROOM_CAP.
CAP_RADIUS
  • integer
The radius of a mushroom cap. Only makes sense with TREE_HAS_MUSHROOM_CAP.
STANDARD_TILE_NAMES Uses the standard names for the tree components (roots, trunk, branches, etc.)
TREE_TILE
  • tile
The tile used for trees of this type on the world map. Defaults to 24 (↑).
DEAD_TREE_TILE
  • tile
The tile used for (un)dead trees and deciduous trees (generally in winter) of this type. Defaults to 198 (╞).
SAPLING_TILE
  • tile
The tile used for saplings of this tree. Defaults to 231 (τ).
DEAD_SAPLING_TILE
  • tile
The tile used for dead saplings of this tree. Defaults to 231 (τ).
TREE_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the tree on the map. Defaults to 2:0:0 (dark green).
DEAD_TREE_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the tree on the map when (un)dead. Defaults to 0:0:1 (dark gray).
SAPLING_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of saplings of this tree. Defaults to 2:0:0 (dark green).
DEAD_SAPLING_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of dead saplings of this tree. Defaults to 0:0:1 (dark gray).
SAPLING_DROWN_LEVEL
  • depth
The sapling of this tree will drown once the water on its tile reaches this level. Defaults to 4.
TREE_DROWN_LEVEL
  • depth
The water depth at which this tree will drown. Exact behavior is unknown. Defaults to 7.
SAPLING Makes young versions of the tree be called "[tree name] sapling"; otherwise, they are called "young [tree name]".

Shrub tokens[edit]

These tokens are used for non-grass, non-tree plants.

Token Arguments Description
SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER Allows the plant to grow in farm plots during the given season.

If the plant is a surface plant, allows it to grow in the wild during this season; wild surface plants without this token will disappear at the beginning of the season. Underground plants grow wild in all seasons, regardless of their season tokens.

GROWDUR
  • time
How long the plant takes to grow to harvest in a farm plot. Unit hundreds of ticks, See Time. There are 1008 GROWDUR units in a season. Defaults to 300.
VALUE
  • value
Has no known effect. Previously set the value of the harvested plant.
PICKED_TILE
  • tile
The tile used when the plant is harvested whole, or is ready to be picked from a farm plot. May either be a cp437 tile number, or a character between single quotes. See character table. Defaults to 231 (τ).
DEAD_PICKED_TILE
  • tile
The tile used when a plant harvested whole has wilted. Defaults to 169 (⌐).
SHRUB_TILE
  • tile
The tile used to represent this plant when it is wild, alive, and has no growths. Defaults to 34 (").
DEAD_SHRUB_TILE
  • tile
The tile used to represent this plant when it is dead in the wild. Defaults to 34 (").
CLUSTERSIZE
  • size
The maximum stack size collected when gathered via herbalism (possibly also from farm plots?). Defaults to 5. CLUSTERSIZE must be greater than or equal to 1+ the number of instances of [STOCKPILE_PLANT_GROWTH] in the plant's raws. For plants like vanilla cabbage, clustersize of 1, which is less than 1+[one instance]=2, will prevent citizens from gathering the plant. Best to set all cluster sizes to 2 or higher for safety.
PICKED_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the plant when it has been picked whole, or when it is ready for harvest in a farm plot. Defaults to 2:0:0 (dark green).
DEAD_PICKED_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the plant when it has been picked whole, but has wilted. Defaults to 0:0:1 (dark gray).
SHRUB_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the plant when it is alive, wild, and has no growths. Defaults to 2:0:0 (dark green).
DEAD_SHRUB_COLOR
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
The color of the plant when it is dead in the wild. Defaults to 6:0:0 (brown).
SHRUB_DROWN_LEVEL
  • depth
The shrub will drown once the water on its tile reaches this level. Defaults to 4.
DRINK Names a drink made from the plant, allowing it to be used in entity resources. Previously also permitted brewing the plant into alcohol made of this material. Now, a MATERIAL_REACTION_PRODUCT of type DRINK_MAT should be used on the proper plant material.
MILL Permits milling the plant at a quern or millstone into a powder made of this material and allows its use in entity resources. Said material should have [POWDER_MISC_PLANT] to permit proper stockpiling. This token makes the whole plant harvestable regardless of which material is designated for milling. For plants with millable growths, use only MATERIAL_REACTION_PRODUCT or ITEM_REACTION_PRODUCT tokens to define the milling products.
THREAD Permits processing the plant at a farmer's workshop to yield threads made of this material and allows its use in entity resources. Said material should have [THREAD_PLANT] to permit proper stockpiling.
SEED
  • name
  • name_plural
  • foreground
  • background
  • bright
  • material
Causes the plant to yield plantable seeds made of this material and having these properties. Said material should have [SEED_MAT] to permit proper stockpiling.
EXTRACT_STILL_VIAL Permits processing the plant into a vial at a still to yield extract made of this material. Said material should have [EXTRACT_STORAGE:FLASK].
EXTRACT_VIAL Permits processing the plant into a vial at a farmer's workshop to yield extract made of this material. Said material should have [EXTRACT_STORAGE:FLASK].
EXTRACT_BARREL Permits processing the plant into a barrel at a farmer's workshop to yield extract made of this material. Said material should have [EXTRACT_STORAGE:BARREL].

Grass tokens[edit]

These tokens are used only for grasses.

Token Arguments Description
GRASS Makes the plant behave as a type of grass. This allows animals to graze on it, and prevents it and its growths from being picked by herbalists. (Grass growths can still be picked in adventure mode, however.)
GRASS_TILES
  • tile
  • tile
  • tile
  • tile
Specifies the 4 tiles used to represent grass of this type. If VARIED_GROUND_TILES is disabled in d_init.txt, these are seemingly ignored. Defaults to 46:44:96:39 (.,`').
ALT_PERIOD
  • period
  • offset
How often the grass switches between its main tiles and alternate tiles. The "period" value determines how quickly (in frames) the grass animates, and the "offset" value specifies how much of that time is spent displaying the alternate tiles. If the "offset" value is greater than or equal to the "period" value, the grass will only display using the alternate tiles.[Verify] Defaults to 0:0.
ALT_GRASS_TILES
  • tile
  • tile
  • tile
  • tile
When used with ALT_PERIOD, specifies the 4 alternate tiles used to represent grass of this type. Defaults to 46:44:96:39 (.,`'). Dead grass does not animate.
GRASS_COLORS
  • color 1 (fore:back:bright)
  • color 2 (fore:back:bright)
  • dry color (fore:back:bright)
  • dead color (fore:back:bright)
Specifies the color of this grass. Defaults to 2:0:1:2:0:0:6:0:1:6:0:0 (light green, dark green, yellow, brown).