Piranha Plant



Piranha Plants are large, carnivorous plants encountered throughout the Mario series; Piranha Plants are seemingly based-off Venus Flytrap, eating anything that approaches them.

The head of a Piranha Plant is most commonly either red or green with multiple other colors. Originally, Piranha Plants were found exclusively in pipes, either darting-out and biting anything near or remaining still and spitting fireballs. Currently, Piranha Plants can be found both in and out of pipes and their fire-breathing ability is now rarely used.

Super Mario Bros.
The first appearance of Piranha Plants was in Super Mario Bros. as semi-common enemies who would inhabit Warp Pipes and attack by biting Mario or Luigi if they were close enough to them. Oddly, Piranha Plants won't emerge from their pipe if Mario or Luigi is touching it or standing directly on top of it.

Piranha Plants could be defeated by shooting them with a fireball in a character's fire form, by kicking a Koopa shell at them or by touching them while empowered by a Starman.

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, which was the Japanese-version of Super Mario Bros. 2, introduced red-colored Piranha Plants, which were much quicker than the green variety and emerged from their pipe, regardless if someone is touching it.

Super Mario Land
A possible, more primitive version of Piranha Plants, called Pakkun Flowers appear in Super Mario Land, which takes place in Sarasaland, not the Mushroom Kingdom. Pakkun Flowers, like Piranha Plants, would attack Mario by charging upward from pipes and trying to bite him.

Super Mario Bros. 3
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Piranha Plants are found throughout the game; along with having their standard biting attack, Piranha Plants also gain their ability to shoot dangerous, albeit slow-moving, fireballs. Here, along with being defeated with fireballs, Koopa shells and Starman-powers, Piranha Plants could also be beaten with the tail of the Tanooki Suit.

Three variants of Piranha Plants are also introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3, they are Piranhacus Giganticus, Ptooies and Venus Fire Traps.

Nipper Plants and Munchers may also be relatives of Piranha Plants, as they resemble them and are presumably juvenile versions of them.

Additionally, the king of Pipe Land is transformed into a Piranha Plant by Ludwig Von Koopa; in later ports of Super Mario Bros. 3, the king is changed into a Yoshi instead of a Piranha Plant.

Super Mario World
Piranha Plants also appear in Super Mario World as enemies once again, attacking Mario, Luigi and Yoshi by trying to bite them.

A single variants of Piranha Plants is introduced in Super Mario World, this variant, Jumping Piranha Plant live in pipes and leap through the air, attacking anything nearby.

In Super Mario World, Piranha Plants can be beaten using fireballs, Starman-powers, a Koopa shell, a cape-attack or by simply eating them with Yoshi's tongue.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
The Piranha Plants of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins are, more or less, identical to the ones of Super Mario World; these Piranha Plants can be defeatede by hitting them with a superball.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Piranha Plants are drastically changed; instead of being rooted in pipes, Piranha Plants are found planted in the ground. Piranha Plants, instead of attacking at intervals, would simply wait in a miniaturized form and grow larger and lunge at a Yoshi if they approached.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island also had a Piranha Plant boss named Naval Piranha, who is grown gigantic in size by Kamek's magic.

The Piranha Plants of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island could easily be defeated by throwing an egg at them or by spitting an enemy at them.

Hootie the Blue Fish, an uncommon enemy in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island may be a sub-species of Piranha Plants, as they do resemble them. Wild Ptooie Piranhas, powerful, green and Needlenose-spitting Piranha Plants also make their debut in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

Nipper Plants also appear as enemies in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island; here, Nipper Plants are usually spawned from Nipper Spores, which Naval Piranha is capable of spitting.

Tetris Attack
In Tetris Attack, only Naval Piranha appears as a boss and minion of Kamek and Bowser, aiding them in their plot of brainwashing the inhabitants of Yoshi's Island.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Piranha Plants appear as enemies in the Pipe Vault, where they try to ambush Mario by leaping from a pipe. Interestingly, the Piranha Plants of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars have root-like legs, allowing them to walk, though despite this, outside of battle, they are found exclusively in pipes. Perhaps in reference to their immunity to being jumped on in earlier Mario games, the Piranha Plants of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars are completely immune to Mario's jump attacks.

Later on in Bean Valley, green and purple-colored Piranha Plants, named Chewies appear. Additionally Megasmilax, a giant Piranha Plant also appears in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars as Bean Vally's boss.

Nipper Plants, though renamed Chompweeds also appear as coin-stealing obstacles in the Pipe Vault.

Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS
In Super Mario 64 and it's advanced remake, Super Mario 64 DS Piranha Plants appear as semi-common enemies once again, the lips of these Piranha Plants are also, inexplicably, green.

Normally, these Piranha Plants are found calmly sleeping in flower beds, but if approached, they will attack in a crazed frenzy. Players must be quick to attack a Piranha Plant before it wakes-up in order to defeat it.



A giant-sized, unnamed version of Piranha Plants appear in Tiny-Huge Island; these giant Piranha Plants are extremely powerful and dangerous and must be hit repeatedly to be defeated.

Yoshi's Story
The Piranha Plants of Yoshi's Story are shown to be capable of growing to huge proportions, their gnashing heads atop spike-covered stalks. Yoshi's Story also introduced several "child"-versions of Piranha Plants, the flying Piranha Pest and the grounded Piranha Sprouts.

Also, it is revealed that an extremely large area of Yoshi's Island is composed of Piranha Plants; this area is aptly named Piranha Grove.

Nipper Spores also appear in Yoshi's Story, this time, their oddly spike covered.

Paper Mario
In Paper Mario, Piranha Plants are found in Forever Forest. Unlike the Piranha Plants of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, who are firmly rooted in place and unable to move, the Piranha Plants of Paper Mario are shown to be able to move around freely; if a Piranha Plant is alerted to Mario's presence, it will burrow underground and suddenly "burst" to the surface near Mario and try to bite him.

Two variations of Piranha Plants, the tropical Putrid Piranha and frigid Frost Piranha, are introduced in Paper Mario. The boss of Mt. Lavalava, Lava Piranha is also a gigantic, talking and flaming Piranha Plant.

Super Mario Sunshine
In Super Mario Sunshine, Piranha Plants are somewhat rare, only appearing in Bianco Hills. These Piranha Plants will attack Mario by popping-out of the ground and waddling towards him, trying to bite.

Goopy Piranha Plants, apparently Piranha Plants created from the sludge of the Gaddbrush, are also fought as mini-bosses in Super Mario Sunshine; Piranha Heads, giant-sized, goop-covered Piranha Plant heads also appear as obstacles in Bianco Hills.

Oddly enough, all of these Pirhana Plants that have just been mentioned lack any form of teeth in their mouth, making them not similar to pirhanas at all.



Petey Piranha, a goop-spitting, giant Piranha Plant also appears twice as a boss in Super Mario Sunshine, and is the only Pirhana Plant with teeth. He never uses them though.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Piranha Plants appear as enemies in the Beanbean International Airport, where they interrupt the landing process of Princess Peach's Airplane. These Piranha Plants must be killed by Luigi's Thunderhand after dousing them in water.

A giant Piranha Plant, which oddly, hatches from an egg, appears as a boss in the Beanbean International Airport. This Piranha Plant, named Mom Piranha had the ability to shoot energy beams.

Later on in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a Piranha Plant named Piranha Bean appears as a mini-boss. Oddly, Piranha Bean had the ability to shrink anything it eats.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Piranha Plants are surprisingly rare in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, found only in the Pit of 100 Trials. Piranha Plants are also one of the more powerful enemies in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, having a large amount of attack power and Health Points.

As well as marking the return of Frost Piranhas and Putrid Piranhas, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door also introduces the albino Pale Piranhas.

Super Princess Peach
Although no regular Piranha Plants appear in Super Princess Peach, a new variety of them, called Glad Piranha Plants appear; Glad Ptooies and Sad Nipper Plants also appear in Super Princess Peach.

New Super Mario Bros.
In New Super Mario Bros., Piranha Plants return to their original attack pattern of popping-out of pipes and biting anything nearby.

Venus Fire Traps also make their return in New Super Mario Bros., while giant-sized Super Piranha Plants make their debut.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Though regular Piranha Plants don't appear in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, two new sub-species of them, called Elasto-Piranhas and Piranha Planets appear.

Yoshi's Island DS
In Yoshi's Island DS, Piranha Plants once again appear as common enemies, along with Wild Ptooie Piranhas, Nipper Plants, Nipper Spores. Several new Piranha Plants, such as Ghost Piranhas, undead Piranha Plants, Bungee Piranha, purple, stretching Piranha Plants and Nipper Dandelions, Nipper Spores bunched together, also appear in Yoshi's Island DS.

A Piranha Plant boss, named Big Bungee Piranha also appears in Yoshi's Island DS.

Super Paper Mario
Pirhana Plants appeared again in the third Paper Mario game, Super Paper Mario. In this game, they first appeared on the first level. Then, the only way to defeat them was by using an item. They have a lot of HP since the last game they were in. Many stronger recolorations of these creatures were used.

Here is their full tattle: This is a notorious Pirhana Plant. It is a monstrous flower that lives in pipes... Max HP is two and Attack is one. This strange weed will stay low if you cozy up to the side of its pipe...

Other Appearances
Piranha Plants are featured quite prominently in the Mario Party series, often as obstacles in mini-games. In Mario Party, Piranha Plants could be planted by players in the Peach's Birthday Cake board; By doing this, players that stop on the plant's spot lose a Star. In Mario Party 3, Piranha Plants appear in Waluigi's Island and are Waluigi's partner in Duel Mode.

In the Mario Kart series, Piranha Plants often appear as road obstacles, such as in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.



In Mario Superstar Baseball, Piranha Plants appear as obstacles in the Yoshi Park, where they will eat any nearby balls and spit them out in a randoim direction. Piranha Plants also appear in the Piranha Panic mini-game, where players must hit colored Piranha Plants with fireballs of matching colors.

In Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS the silhouette of a Piranha Plant appears under the 3-Star difficulty of the 'Get in Shape' mini-game.

Piranha Plants also appear as enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, also, the Deku Babas of The Legend of Zelda series also resemble Piranha Plants.

Creatures whose appearance are obviously based on Piranha Plants also appear in the Crash Bandicoot series and the Jak and Daxter series.

Paper Mario Stats and Tattle Information

 * HP: 5
 * Attack: 3
 * Defense: 0
 * Location: Forever Forest
 * Tattle:This is a Piranha Plant. Piranha Plants pop out of the ground at unexpected moments, so be on your guard. You've seen 'em in every one of your adventures, so I imagine you know 'em pretty well. Their sharp jaws point upward, so you'll get bitten if you try to jump on 'em. They smile after biting people. That smug smile...it makes me hopping mad!

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Stats and Tattle Information

 * HP: 15
 * Attack: 9
 * Defense: 0
 * Location: Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 81-89)
 * Tattle Number: 59
 * Tattle Log: The strongest of the Piranha Plants. It likes to live... in pipes.
 * Tattle: That's a Piranha Plant. In fact, I think this is the strongest type of them all. Max HP is 15, Attack is 9 and Defense is 0. Its Attack power is absurdly high... It may look like a normal Piranha Plant, but don't be fooled! It's super-tough! If we get beaten by a flower, we'll never hear the end of it, know what I mean?