Mario franchise strategy guide/Species/Pianta

Piantas are a species that live with the Nokis on Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine.

Piantas come in male and female forms and a variety of bright colors. They wear leaf skirts (regardless of their gender) and have little palm trees on their heads instead of hair (to protect them from the sun). Their ancestral home on Isle Delfino is Pianta Village, but they have spread to almost every area of the island. In Delfino Plaza, there's a Grand Pianta Statue in the middle of the city.

Appearances
During the events of Super Mario Sunshine, the Piantas, believing Mario to have been polluting their island and scaring their guardians, the Shine Sprites away, captured him and sentenced him to clean all of Isle Delphino. Throughout Super Mario Sunshine, Mario can encounter various Piantas, some of who are nice, while others quite rude, believing Mario to be nothing more then a criminal. After King Bowser and Bowser Jr. were defeated and Mario's name was cleared, the Piantas exhonerated him of all charges they had against them.

In addition to Super Mario Sunshine, Piantas have appeared in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. In that game, there was sort of a "Pianta Syndicate" led by Don Pianta in the city of Rogueport. The Piantas in the game wore suit jackets along with the obligatory skirts and spoke with stereotypical Italian-American accents. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario and his partners would need the help of the Pianta Syndicate in order to advance in the game, often needing favors for the mob in order to gain a needed item, such as a blimp or train ticket. The Pianta Syndicate live on the much nicer, west side of Rogueport, seemingly all of which, they own.

Piantas have also appeared as audience members in other games such as Mario Power Tennis, Super Mario Strikers, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and Mario Kart DS, but finally made a playable appearance in Mario Superstar Baseball - although only male Piantas are playable (the playable Nokis are female). In this game, they are heavy hitters who utilize a large tree branch as a bat. Recently Piantas have appeared on "Goomba's Booty Boardwalk" in Mario Party 8.