Leaf raft

"Since the lake's been like this, the leaf boats have all rotted. They fall apart when you get on them now. That's...not good."

- Pianta

Leaf rafts (also capitalized in the Super Mario Galaxy 2 manual and previously referred to as leaf boats in Super Mario Sunshine) are floating rafts made of giant leaves. They appear in a few Super Mario platformers.

Super Mario Sunshine
Leaf boats first appear in Super Mario Sunshine, appearing in some areas of Bianco Hills as well as the Lily Pad Ride secret area. To use one, Mario must jump on one, and then use FLUDD to push the leaf boat in the direction he wishes to go. The leaf boat then begins to move forward, and continues to do so until Mario stops spraying, gradually slowing to a stop after that point. In The Secret of the Dirty Lake and the Lily Pad Ride, the leaf boats are brown from the poison water they are in and begin to slowly wilt away when Mario lands on them, eventually disappearing.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Leaf rafts reappear in Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the Starshine Beach Galaxy. They behave similar to their appearance in Super Mario Sunshine, but due to the absence of F.L.U.D.D., are now controlled by stepping along the edges the player wants to move them. Relating to this, they now have a high ridge along their perimeters to prevent the player from walking off the edge. They have also been redesigned to look like fallen tree leaves, having a stem on the side and a pointed edge across from it.

A Pianta in this galaxy opens his "leaf raft shop" for business in the mission Climbing the Cloudy Tower, which is the only time they can be used. The player can use them to cross the large body of water in this galaxy without actually touching the water. This is essential in the aforementioned mission, where the player as Cloud Mario or Cloud Luigi must ride across the water using leaf rafts to successfully reach the large tower where the Power Star is located.