- For other uses, see plants.
Plants are living organisms that belong to the Plantae kingdom. They obtain most of their energy from sunlight in a process called photosynthesis. However, not all plants absorb energy via photosynthesis. They are the protagonists of Plants vs. Zombies and the player's main defense against the undead assailants.
The Plants also populate the Zen Garden, available in the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Android, Nintendo DS, iPad, and iPhone versions of Plants vs. Zombies. In the Zen Garden, the player is able to use the Watering Can, Bug Spray and Fertilizer to grow Plants and earn money.
There are many different plants, each with different abilities and special attributes. During night, sun does not fall from the sky, so mushrooms are usually used because of their low sun cost. In pool levels, plants must be either Aquatic, or planted on a Lily Pad to be in the water. Fog levels are a mix of night and pool levels, but also have fog in the level which can be removed temporarily with a Blover or removed with a Plantern or Torchwood until the end of the level or whenever the plant is removed with the Shovel (or eaten by zombies). On the roof, plants require Flower Pots to be planted on before planting the actual plant. Also, the roof is slanted to make the levels harder by making most of the projectiles hit the slanted part of the roof instead of the zombies, so catapult plants are used. A night roof setting also exists, where the player fights Dr. Zomboss.
On the top of each Seed Packets, there is a phrase: "Bloom and Doom Seed Co." (except in the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSiWare, Android, and iOS version of Plants vs. Zombies), "BLOOM & DOOM" being a name that PopCap brainstormed when they were looking for names for Plants vs. Zombies.
To fight zombies, certain projectiles are fired from plants. For example, peas are fired from peashooting plants, such as Peashooters and Threepeaters. Spikes are fired from Cattails and Cacti. Spores are shot from Puff-shrooms, Scaredy-shrooms, and Sea-shrooms. Fumes are shot from Fume-shrooms and Gloom-shrooms. lobbed-shot plants each fire their own specific kind of projectile. Stars are fired from Starfruits. Lobbed-shot plants such as Cabbage-pults, Kernel-pults, Melon-pults, and Winter Melons can also shoot over shields and hit Snorkel Zombies while they are underwater, although they cannot hit Balloon Zombies, despite the fact that they shoot high up.
|Projectile shooter name||Damage per shot||Projectile||Equivalent in peas|
|Peashooter, Repeater, Threepeater, Split Pea, Gatling Pea||Normal||Pea or fire pea after passing a Torchwood||1 (pea), 0.7 (fire peas' splash damage), 2 (fire pea)|
|Snow Pea||Normal, slows zombies||Frozen Pea or Pea after passing a Torchwood||1, halves zombies' speed (frozen pea)|
|Puff-shroom, Scaredy-shroom, Sea-shroom||Normal||Spore||1|
|Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom||Normal, penetrates Screen Doors, Ladders and Newspapers||Fumes||1|
|Cactus, Cattail||Normal, pops balloons||Spike||1, pops balloons|
|Starfruit||Normal (for each star)||Star||1|
|Kernel-pult||Light (kernel), normal (butter)||Kernel or butter||1 (kernel), 2 and stun (butter)|
|Melon-pult||Heavy, area of effect||Melon||4 (target), 1.5 (splash)|
|Winter Melon||Very heavy, area of effect, slows zombies||Frozen Melon||4 (target), 1.5 (splash), all are slowed|
|Cob Cannon||Massive, area of effect||Corn Cob||90 (three-by-three area)|
Type of plants
Plants received when playing Adventure Mode
At the end of each level of the player's first playthrough of Adventure Mode, a new seed packet of a plant made by the Bloom & Doom Seed Company is received from the last zombie to get destroyed. There is a theory that Crazy Dave throws them, according to a Sneak Peek to the Xbox 360 Version. Once the Suburban Almanac is acquired in level 2-4, a humorous quote of each plant can be read as well as a summary and helpful facts about it.
Plants received at Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies
Once Crazy Dave's car key is found, Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies is unlocked and more plants can be purchased with Money. These plants are called Upgrade Plants. They are the Gatling Pea ($5,000), Twin Sunflower ($5,000), Gloom-shroom ($7,500), Cattail ($10,000), Winter Melon ($10,000), Gold Magnet ($3,000), Spikerock ($7,500), and Cob Cannon ($20,000). The Imitater ($30,000) is also available here, but requires completing Adventure Mode before it can be bought. Other Upgrade Plants will arrive after receiving certain objects, such as the Magic Taco.
Sun producing plants
Sun producing plants are vital for regular levels in order to plant. Each plant has a certain amount of sun that is needed in order for it to be planted. Also, the seed packets for plants have a recharge time; some of which are longer than others. In Survival: Endless, upgrades cost 50 more sun to plant for each of that particular plant on the lawn at the time of planting. Below are the costs of Sun Producing Plants and how much sun is produced.
|Name||Cost||Sun per production|
|Sun-shroom||25||15 before growing, then 25 sun after growing (grows after producing five small sun)|
|Twin Sunflower||150||50 sun per production|
|Giant Sunflower||50||50 sun per production|
|Big sun||50||Sky in Sunny Day|
|Normal sun||25||Sky in daytime levels, Sunflower, Sun-shroom after growing, Twin Sunflower, Giant Sunflower|
|Small sun||15||Sun-shroom before growing|
Money producing plants
The Marigold is the only money producing plant, but in the Zen Garden all plants will drop gold coins when fertilized, happy and also drop diamonds when fully grown. Gold Magnets and Stinky the Snail aid in money production as well.
To unlock the Morticulturalist achievement you must collect all 49 plants, including the upgrade plants and the Imitater in Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies. Be prepared to be money farming for a long time, because all plants from Crazy Dave when added together cost $98,000.
List of plants
|Peashooter||Peashooters are your first line of defense. They shoot peas at attacking zombies.||At the beginning||100||Fast|
|Sunflower+||Sunflowers are essential for you to produce extra sun. Try planting as many as you can!||After beating Level 1-1||50||Fast|
|Cherry Bomb||Cherry Bombs can blow up all zombies in an area. They have a short fuse so plant them near zombies.||After beating Level 1-2||150||Very slow|
|Wall-nut+||Wall-nuts have hard shells which you can use to protect your other plants.||After beating Level 1-3||50||Slow|
|Potato Mine||Potato Mines pack a powerful punch, but they need a while to arm themselves. You should plant them ahead of zombies. They will explode on contact.||After beating Level 1-5||25||Slow|
|Snow Pea||Snow Peas shoot frozen peas that damage and slow the enemy.||After beating Level 1-6||175|
150 (Versus Mode)
100 (Heavy Weapon)
|Chomper||Chompers can devour a zombie whole, but they are vulnerable while chewing.||After beating Level 1-7||150||Fast|
|Repeater||Repeaters fire two peas at a time.||After beating Level 1-8||200|
150 (Versus Mode)
|Puff-shroom||Puff-shrooms are cheap, but can only fire a short distance.||After beating Level 1-10||0||Fast|
|Sun-shroom||Sun-shrooms give small sun at first and normal sun later.||After beating Level 2-1||25||Fast|
|Fume-shroom||Fume-shrooms shoot fumes that can pass through screen doors.||After beating Level 2-2||75||Fast|
|Grave Buster||Plant Grave Busters on graves to remove the graves.||After beating Level 2-3||75||Fast|
Very slow (Versus Mode)
|Hypno-shroom||When eaten, Hypno-shrooms will make a zombie turn around and fight for you.||After beating Level 2-5||75||Slow|
|Scaredy-shroom||Scaredy-shrooms are long-ranged shooters that hide when enemies get near them.||After beating Level 2-6||25||Fast|
|Ice-shroom||Ice-shrooms temporarily immobilize all zombies on the screen.||After beating Level 2-7||75||Very slow|
|Doom-shroom||Doom-shrooms destroy everything in a large area and leave a crater that can't be planted on.||After beating Level 2-8||125||Very slow|
|Lily Pad||Lily pads let you plant non-aquatic plants on top of them.||After beating Level 2-10||25||Fast|
|Squash||Squashes will smash the first zombie that gets close to it.||After beating Level 3-1||50|
75 (Versus Mode)
|Threepeater||Threepeaters shoot peas in three lanes.||After beating Level 3-2||325|
200 (Versus Mode)
400 (Heavy Weapon)
Very slow (Versus Mode)
|Tangle Kelp||Tangle Kelp are aquatic plants that pull the first zombie that nears them underwater.||After beating Level 3-3||25||Slow|
|Jalapeno||Jalapenos destroy an entire lane of zombies.||After beating Level 3-5||125||Very Slow|
|Spikeweed||Spikeweeds pop tires and hurt any zombies that step on them.||After beating Level 3-6||100||Fast|
|Torchwood||Torchwoods turn peas that pass through them into fireballs that deal twice as much damage.||After beating Level 3-7||175||Fast|
|Tall-nut||Tall-nuts are heavy-duty wall plants that can't be vaulted over.||After beating Level 3-8||125||Slow|
|Sea-shroom||Sea-shrooms are aquatic plants that shoot short ranged spores.||After beating Level 3-10||0||Slow|
|Plantern||Planterns light up an area, letting you see through fog.||After beating Level 4-1||25||Slow|
|Cactus||Cactuses shoot spikes that can hit both ground and air targets.||After beating Level 4-2||125|
100 (Versus Mode)
|Blover||Blovers blow away all balloon zombies and fog.||After beating Level 4-3||100||Fast|
|Split Pea||Split Peas shoot peas forward and backwards.||After beating Level 4-5||125||Fast|
Very slow (Versus Mode)
|Starfruit||Starfruits shoot stars in 5 directions.||After beating Level 4-6||125|
175 (Versus Mode)
|Pumpkin||Pumpkins protect plants that are within their shells.||After beating Level 4-7||125||Slow|
|Magnet-shroom||Magnet-shrooms remove helmets and other metal objects from zombies.||After beating Level 4-8||100||Fast|
|Cabbage-pult||Cabbage-pults hurl cabbages at the enemy.||After beating Level 4-10||100||Fast|
|Flower Pot||Flower Pots let you plant on the roof.||After beating Level 5-1||25||Fast|
|Kernel-pult||Kernel-pults fling corn kernels and butter at zombies.||After beating Level 5-2||100||Fast|
|Coffee Bean||Use Coffee Beans to wake up sleeping mushrooms.||After beating Level 5-3||75|
25 (Versus Mode)
|Garlic||Garlic diverts zombies into other lanes.||After beating Level 5-5||50|
75 (Versus Mode)
Very slow (Versus Mode)
|Umbrella Leaf||Umbrella Leaves protect nearby plants from bungees and catapults.||After beating Level 5-6||100||Fast|
|Marigold+||Marigolds give you silver and gold coins.||After beating Level 5-7||50||Slow|
|Melon-pult||Melon-pults do heavy damage to groups of zombies.||After beating Level 5-8||300||Fast|
Very slow (Versus Mode)
|Gatling Pea*||Gatling Peas shoot four peas at a time.||After beating Level 3-4; $5000||250 (+200)||Very slow|
|Twin Sunflower*||Twin Sunflowers give twice as much sun as a normal sunflower.||After beating Level 3-4; $5000||150 (+50)||Very slow|
|Gloom-shroom*||Gloom-shrooms release heavy fumes in an area around themselves.||After beating Level 4-4; $7500||150 (+75)||Very slow|
|Cattail*||Cattails can attack any lane and shoot down balloon zombies too.||After beating Level 4-4; $10000||225 (+25)||Very slow|
|Winter Melon*||Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.||After beating Adventure Mode; $10000||200 (+300)||Very slow|
|Gold Magnet*||Gold Magnets collect coins and diamonds for you.||After beating Level 5-1; $3000||50 (+100)||Very slow|
|Spikerock*||Spikerocks pop multiple tires and damage zombies that walk over it.||After beating Level 5-1; $7500||125 (+100)||Very slow|
|Cob Cannon*||Click on the Cob Cannon to launch deadly cobs of corn.||After beating Adventure Mode; $20000||500 (+100x2)||Very slow|
|Imitater'||Imitaters let you use two of the same plant during a level!||After beating Adventure Mode; $30000||As the imitated plant|
|Explode-o-nut||Explode-o-nuts explode upon contact with zombies.||Used in Wall-nut Bowling levels||Free||None|
|Giant Wall-nut†||Giant Wall-nut can crush a row of zombies or have large amounts of health.||Used in Wall-nut Bowling 2 and Big Time||Free|
50 (Big Time)
|Giant Sunflower†||Giant Sunflower produces two regular sun at the rate of a normal sunflower.||Used in Big Time||50||Fast|
|Giant Marigold†||Giant Marigold drops two silver or gold coins at once.||Used in Big Time||50||Slow|
* Is an upgrade that can be bought from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.
' Not an upgrade, but can also be bought from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.
+ Becomes bigger in the Cancelled Mini-game Big Time.
† This is the bigger form of a plant in Big Time.
- For more information, see Encyclopedia.
- Most plants take six bites before being eaten.
- No plants start with letter O, Q, V, X, Y and Z.
- Mushrooms are classified as plants, even though they are actually fungi, which are an entirely different kingdom in the domain Eukaryota.
- Every plant blinks after a while, except for the Hypno-shroom, Cherry Bomb, Doom-shroom, Jalapeno, Ice-shroom, Chomper, Flower Pot, Coffee Bean, and Pumpkin, because the Cherry Bomb, Ice-shroom Doom-shroom and Jalapeno explode instantly, the Chomper has no eyes, the Flower Pot has its eyes closed, Coffee Bean is used instantly, the Pumpkin has eyes that are carved in and the Hypno-shroom has swirly eyes.
- In the Instant kills' Suburban Almanac pages, they blink.
- Most game commercials and the Mini-game Slot Machine show Peashooters with the back of the Repeater.
- In the Suburban Almanac, the Grave Buster and the Plantern are the only non-mushroom plants for whom the background is night. That's because they're important in night and fog respectively.
- Different animations are seen when the player plants something in a different terrain. If the player plants something on land, or a Flower Pot, he or she can see soil jumping out of the ground. If he or she plants something on water, there will be a splash of water.
- When the player plants on land or on a Flower Pot, there are two slightly different sound effects that can be made. Planting on water, however will only produce one sound effect.
- On the Plants vs. Zombies Official Website, in the Characters section, it says that there are only forty-two plants, although there are only forty plants when the Imitater or Upgrade Plants are not counted.
- The Chomper, Gold Magnet, Spikerock and Grave Buster are the only plants whose names are not derived from a plant.
- Upgrade plants says they must be planted on their downgrades, Grave Buster must be planted on graves, Lily Pad must be planted on water, and Flower Pot can be planted on both the Roof and the Lawn.
- The most plants the player can have on one square is five: Lily Pad or Flower Pot, a Fume-shroom, a Pumpkin, a Gloom-shroom and a Coffee Bean.
- In the Zen Garden, aquatic plants do not need water (probably because they already have water in the aqua pot or aquarium).
- The Frozen Melon and the Corn Cob are the only projectiles shot only by Upgrade Plants.