Glow Lichen - Minecraft Block Guide | Properties, Recipe & Uses (2025)

What is Glow Lichen in Minecraft?

Glow lichen is a unique, non solid plant that gives off a dim light. It looks like a patch of glowing, vein like moss that can grow on the sides, top, and bottom of blocks. Its main purpose is to be a subtle and atmospheric light source. Unlike torches, which are very bright and obvious, glow lichen provides a soft, natural looking glow that is perfect for lighting up caves, forests, or builds without ruining the atmosphere. Players use glow lichen to add a touch of magical, ambient light to their creations and to subtly light up large areas to prevent mobs from spawning. It is a fantastic tool for builders who want more control over their lighting.

How to get Glow Lichen in Minecraft

The only way to get glow lichen is to find it. It cannot be crafted. Glow lichen generates naturally on blocks inside caves, all throughout the underground. It is especially common in the lush cave biome. You will see it clinging to the walls, floors, and ceilings of caves. To collect it, you must use a pair of shears. If you try to break it with your hand or any other tool, it will be destroyed and will not drop as an item. So, craft a pair of shears from two iron ingots, find a patch of glow lichen, and snip it to pick it up. You can also sometimes buy glow lichen from a Wandering Trader for an emerald.

How to use Glow Lichen in Minecraft

The main use for glow lichen is as a versatile light source. You can place it on any side of most solid blocks. When you place it, it will create a single patch. You can then use bone meal on the placed glow lichen to make it spread to adjacent blocks, as long as there is an air block for it to grow into. This is a great way to cover a large wall or ceiling with a soft glow. Each block of glow lichen gives off a light level of 7, which is enough to stop monsters from spawning on that block. You can also place glow lichen underwater, where it will still glow, making it a great option for lighting up aquatic builds. It can also be placed in a composter to create bone meal.

How to craft Glow Lichen in Minecraft

No recipes for this block.

What can Glow Lichen make in Minecraft

No items can be crafted.

My Story

How This All Started

So basically, I was playing Minecraft one night after a long day doing deliveries, and I was trying to remember what drops what and how to craft certain things. Every website I went to was either dead slow, missing loads of stuff, or just looked terrible. I thought "bloody hell, surely I can do better than this?"

By the way, this My Story section is something new I've only just started adding things here! Most of the site was actually built before I ever wrote this part. Now that the website is live, I'm running into problems galore! So if things look a bit rough or unfinished, bear with me I'm updating and adding as I go.

That was probably a mistake.

A half finished story, oh well. I'll keep adding more as I go!

Learning the Hard Way

I knew absolutely nothing about making websites. Like, properly nothing. I didn't even know what PHP was. But I'm stubborn as anything, so I just started watching YouTube tutorials and reading random stuff online while I was on my breaks.

Turns out building a database is harder than it looks. Who knew? I've probably broken this thing more times than I've fixed it. My laptop has definitely been sworn at more than it deserves.

The worst part is when you spend hours trying to figure out why something doesn't work, and it turns out you missed a semicolon. Or when everything works fine on your computer but looks like complete rubbish on someone else's. Fun times.

The Reality of It

Look, I'm not gonna lie this has been a right pain sometimes. I work full time doing deliveries, so most of this gets done late at night when I should probably be sleeping. I've had way too many energy drinks and definitely not enough sleep.

The database has corrupted itself more times than I care to remember. I've had images that wouldn't load for no reason. CSS that worked yesterday but decided to have a tantrum today. The usual web development nightmare stuff.

But every time I get something working properly, it feels brilliant. Like when I finally got all the block images showing up correctly, or when the search actually started finding things. Small wins, but they keep me going.

What I Actually Want to Build

Here's the thing I want this to be your go to place for everything Minecraft. Not just blocks and items, but proper guides, build tutorials, maybe even schematics you can download. Server info, community stuff, the lot.

I know it doesn't look like much right now, and there's loads missing. But I'm working on it. It takes time when you're learning as you go and doing it around a full time job. But I'd rather take my time and do it properly than rush it and end up with something rubbish.

The plan is to make it the kind of site I actually want to use fast, easy to navigate, with everything you need in one place. No endless ads, no broken links, just useful stuff presented in a way that doesn't make you want to throw your computer out the window.

Why I Keep Going

Honestly? Because every time someone uses this site or gives me feedback, it reminds me why I started. I love Minecraft, I love building things (both in game and apparently websites), and I love the community.

Plus, I've learned loads doing this. Sure, I've wanted to give up more times than I can count, but seeing it slowly come together is pretty satisfying. And if it helps other people find what they're looking for without having to trawl through ten different outdated websites, then that's worth it.

So yeah, bear with me while I figure this all out. It's going to take a while, but it'll get there eventually. Thanks for checking it out, and if you spot anything broken or have suggestions, let me know. I'm still learning, but I'm determined to make this work.