Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
A meadow is a grassy, flower-covered mountain biome that sits on the lower slopes and plateaus below the peaks. It is one of the rarer Overworld biomes, yet in our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds one appeared within 1,000 blocks of spawn in about two out of three worlds. Come for the flowers, bees, villages and long views.
| Dimension | Overworld |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | High ground at the foot of mountains, usually bordering plains, forest or birch forest |
| How common | 0.6% of the surface in our sample (about 1 block in 170) |
| Distance from spawn | Median 786 blocks; within 1,000 blocks in 64% of seeds, within 2,000 in 96% (our sample) |
| Mobs | Sheep, rabbits and donkeys, plus the usual hostile mobs at night |
| Notable blocks | Tall grass, flowers, lone oak and birch trees that often carry bee nests |
| Structures | Villages, pillager outposts, abandoned camps (26.3) |
| Climate | Temperature 0.5, downfall 0.8 |
| Biome ID | minecraft:meadow |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.18 (Caves & Cliffs: Part II, 2021) |
How to find a meadow
Meadows form where low, temperate land starts climbing into mountains. In our sample, a meadow’s edge touched plains 36% of the time, forest 31%, birch forest 13% and taiga 8%. So the fastest way to find one by walking is to head uphill from a plains or forest area toward the nearest snowy peaks, and look for a wide, open slope with flowers and almost no trees.
These three Java 26.3 seeds put a meadow next to world spawn. Each coordinate is inside the meadow, checked at block level.
| Seed | Meadow at | From spawn | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
4295657051458208615 |
X -42, Z -62 | 75 blocks | Open on the map |
-7359304947424811821 |
X -22, Z -18 | 28 blocks | Open on the map |
-3350700544263253598 |
X -86, Z -54 | 23 blocks | Open on the map |
Already in a world? Type /locate biome minecraft:meadow (cheats on) for the nearest one, or paste your seed into the biome finder to see every meadow around spawn. These seeds are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world.
What you find in a meadow
Flowers and plants
The ground is grass block and tall grass, broken up by patches of dandelions, poppies, cornflowers, oxeye daisies, azure bluets, alliums and, since Java 1.21.5, wildflowers. That mix makes a meadow one of the best places to stock up on dye flowers early, since one walk gets you blue, yellow, red, magenta and light gray dye.
Trees are rare. The few that grow are single oaks or birches, and they often carry a bee nest, which is your easiest source of bees for a honey farm. Bring a campfire under the nest before you harvest so the bees stay calm.
Mobs
Sheep, rabbits and donkeys spawn here. Donkeys are the reason many players look for a meadow early: a donkey with a chest gives you 15 extra slots on long trips. At night the meadow is as dangerous as any open biome, and with so few trees there is little cover, so light the area around any base you build.
Structures
Plains-style villages and pillager outposts can generate in meadows, which is why a meadow village often sits on a high, flat shelf with a long view down the mountain. Since Java 26.3, abandoned camps can generate here too.
Building in a meadow
The flat-topped plateaus are easy to build on and give some of the best views in the game, with peaks behind and lower biomes below. The trade-off is materials: there is almost no wood, so bring logs or plant a tree farm.
What changed in 2025-26
In Wilderness Bound (Java 26.3, September 2026), abandoned camps can generate in meadows, with their own meadow design.
In Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5, March 2025), wildflowers, a new flower that grows up to four to a block, now grow in meadows. Short grass generates a little more sparsely, and fallen trees, added to most forests in the same update, never generate here.
Source: the official 26.3 and 1.21.5 release notes.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square centered on each world’s spawn. “How common” is the meadow’s share of those samples; “distance from spawn” is how far the nearest meadow sample was. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
