Grass

Grass is a common world element encountered in various Mario titles, but they only serve actual importance to the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 2. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the player could pull on tall blades of red (black in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic) grass emerging from the ground (by pressing ) to pull out a vegetable. Other items grass could contain include Magical Potions, bombs, Heart Radishes (in Super Mario Advance only), shells, Stop Watches, coins (in Subspace only), or Rockets. Super Mario Advance also adds large turnips called Giant Vegetables, which take longer to pull out. They work just like their normal-sized counterparts, but can hit more enemies, due to their bigger size.

Grass later returns in Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, as scanning the Blue Green Switch will activate grass patches with vegetables below them in the main game. They also appear by default in several World-e levels, namely Vegetable Volley, The ol' Switcheroo, A Sky-High Adventure, Ice Cubed, Ground Work and Treacherous Halls. Note that in this game, only turnips appear, in both their unripe and ripe forms, as well as the giant turnip that was introduced in Super Mario Advance. Some grass patches also hide coins beneath them, or more rarely, Monty Moles (the latter only in Ground Work). Grass is colored green in this game, matching the leaves on the vegetables plucked.

While vegetables made their 3D Mario debut in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, grass is replaced by Pluck Patches, which work the same way. A very similar element to grass is the Item Handle from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which works the same way.

Grass tufts appear in Mushroom Kingdom II in Super Smash Bros. Melee, though they are mere 2D background decorations. Inspired by its function in Super Mario Bros. 2, grass returns as an item in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When a player pulls on blades of grass emerging from the floor of the stage, any random item will be plucked into the player's hands, with status or recovery items activating immediately upon being plucked. However, vegetables cannot be plucked from grass, although that is Peach's down special move. Grass has a reddish coloring in these games. As Mushroom Kingdom II returns in Ultimate, the grass tufts there also return, though their look is more accurate towards Super Mario All-Stars.

Grass also has an important role in the Mario Golf series, where it acts as the lie of the ball, and determines the size of the impact bar. It comes in the form of the Fairway, Fast Fairway, Rough, Heavy Rough and the Green. Grass also serves a purpose in Mario Tennis games as a court with fast speed and low bounce.