Umbrella Leaf


 * For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Umbrella Leaf (PvZH).

Umbrella Leaf is a plant in Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies: Journey to the West, and Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition, that protects herself and up to eight plants surrounding it from Bungee Zombies and basketballs. She is the fifth defensive plant obtained in Adventure Mode and the thirty-eighth plant overall. She is unlocked after completing Level 5-6. She can also bounce the zombies that Bungee Zombies drop during the final wave back up of every Roof level.

Origins
Umbrella Leaf resembles a small tree more than a leaf. When a projectile comes down, she raises her leaves and blocks it. She appears to be based on the real-life mayapple plant, Podophyllum peltatum, due to the positioning of the leaves.

Suburban Almanac entry
Umbrella Leaf

Umbrella Leaves protect nearby plants from bungees and catapults.

Special: protects adjacent plants from bungees and catapults

"SPROING!" says Umbrella Leaf. "Didja like that? I can do it again. SPROING! Woo! That's me popping up to protect stuff around me. Yeah. Just like that. EXACTLY like that. Believe it."

Cost: 100

Recharge: fast

Strategies
Use these only on levels where Bungee Zombies and Catapult Zombies appear and place them around your most important plants. Each Umbrella Leaf covers a 3x3 square area centered on the Umbrella Leaf.

Plant Sunflowers in the back and on the next column put Umbrella Leaves on the second and fifth squares. Do the same for every third column after that, except every other time put them in the first and fourth squares instead to even out offensive plants. This strategy leaves the most room at the start of the level for offensive plants while leaving ample sun and is therefore best for setups that involve Kernel-pults or Cabbage-pults as starter offensive plants, and later progress onto Melon-pult. Another strategy is to plant Sunflowers in the back on columns one and two from the back in rows one, three, and five, place an Umbrella Leaf on column two, rows two and four. Place offensive plants in column one, rows two and four, and column three and four all the way down. Place an Umbrella Leaf in column five, rows two and four, and fill the rest of the spaces with offensive plants. Plant Tall-nuts all the way down the next column. This will allow for six Sunflowers and three offensive plants per row, which is plenty. Another column of offensive plants can be used instead of Tall-nuts if you wish to have four offensive plants per row, and place the Tall-nuts immediately afterward. This can be risky as the Bungee Zombies can steal your Tall-nuts and the Tall-nuts will take loads of damage and may be liable to be taken out by Gargantuars easily. This setup is optimal for providing relatively large amounts of sun while leaving ample space for offensive plants and is thus the best one if Potato Mines are used as stallers while saving up to go straight to Melon-pults. This setup has more sun at the beginning relative to the other setup, and will have the same total space at the end of the setup.

Survival Mode
Because Bungee Zombies and Catapult Zombies will appear on Survival levels, the player should plant Umbrella Leaves before they make an appearance as Bungee Zombies will not be bounced away if the player plants the Umbrella Leaf late. Plant them in the second-to-last column (second one counting from your house) in the second row from the top and bottom. You can use Gloom-shrooms to cover the plants that are not covered by the Umbrella Leaves if only Bungee Zombies are threats, or plant more Umbrella Leaves where necessary; in order to maximize efficiency, plant them only in the second row from the top and bottom, and move your Sunflowers around to compensate for lost space in the rows. If you have Digger Zombies, you may want to use a second Gloom-shroom instead, while placing Umbrella Leaves in the back for Catapults. This is ideal if you have a strong defense that is enough to destroy Bungee Zombies, or if you are playing Survival: Endless. However, they are strongly recommended in the latter.

I, Zombie
She can be difficult to dispose of, especially since she can not be taken out by Bungee Zombie. In addition, the plants around her will be safe too. Digger Zombie should be used here, as it can eat the plants from behind, making it easy to get rid of Umbrella Leaf. However, if there are Split Peas, Starfruits, or Magnet-shrooms, the player should consider taking those out with other zombies, and then using Digger Zombie.

Trivia

 * Her idle animation speeds up after she deflects something.
 * She will not deflect a landing Imp or a landing Balloon Zombie.
 * If the player looks closely, her idle animation is faster in the Zen Garden.
 * It is possible for a Bungee Zombie to steal an Umbrella Leaf if she has been planted after the Bungee Zombie has come down.
 * If she is inside a Pumpkin and its leaves expand, for a moment the main body can be seen through the Pumpkin before she goes back to normal.
 * When a basketball or Bungee Zombie attacks an area protected by more than one Umbrella Leaf, the Umbrella Leaf planted first will deflect it.
 * It is possible to get her in It's Raining Seeds, but this is extremely rare.
 * This makes it the rarest plant to obtain in said mini-game.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, she is used on Small Radish's Puzzle Piece.
 * Her Suburban Almanac entry is a reference to Bungee Zombie, which is one of the zombies it was made to repel.
 * The sound effect that the Umbrella Leaf makes when fending off zombies did not originate from the game, but was a generic ricochet sound effect by Hanna-Barbera. This can only be heard when fending off Bungee Zombies.