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[Paralyzoid]

Do cavern tree saplings growing in my fortress actually do anything?

And does my fortress being covered with cave moss do anything either?

(As in, completely covered everywhere with growth starting across the entire fortress the moment a cavern is discovered. Is this normal?)

[Stormfeather]

Hrm, well, if you mean that EVERY square *immediately* has something growing on it, that's not normal - it is normal though for stuff to immediately start growing, noticeably visibly.

As for usefulness... the saplings (if they're not in a place they'll get walked on) can grow up into trees for you to cut down into wood without having to wander into the caverns/out onto the surface, which can be useful enough that people sometimes intentionally set aside areas for underground tree farming.

Likewise, the cave moss and other similar cavern plants can make for some nice underground pastures for your animals, so you don't have to have them up on the surface and in the path of any sieges/hostiles, or have your dwarfs constantly being put outside in possible danger/out under the Nasty Bright Daystar which they hate.

[Zuglarkun]

Yes. This is normal. Cavern Moss is harmless and can be great for grazing animals. This does tell me your fortress is dug out in the soil levels, or at least experienced some flooding, resulting in muddy floors. Otherwise you should not have moss growing on rock floors.

However, saplings can grow into trees. These can and will block access to areas, if you let them grow unchecked. Personally, I floor over any soil areas that I don't want to expose to cave spores. Its just neater and prevents growth of unwanted cave moss. If I wanted cave moss and cavern trees, I'll set aside an area for grazing/ tree farm or seal off a section of the caverns for that purpose.

[Paralyzoid]

Yes, first three floors are in soil.

So do cave trees grow in 1 Z-level spaces, or do they only grow in 2 Z-level areas? And if so, do the saplings just stay in 1 Z-level areas forever?

[bloop_bleep]

Be aware that moss/sapling growth makes your fortress vulnerable to fire.

Fake-edit:

Yes, first three floors are in soil.

So do cave trees grow in 1 Z-level spaces, or do they only grow in 2 Z-level areas? And if so, do the saplings just stay in 1 Z-level areas forever?

I'm not quite sure, but I think they require 2 z-levels.

[anewaname]

See sapling info here in the wiki. If you have a 1-z underground pasture/plant_gathering zone, the sapling growth will not make it useless.

[PatrikLundell]

Saplings will mature only if there is at least a 2 Z level headroom (this is valid for surface trees as well). As mentioned, saplings maturing into trees can block passages (and water works!). Saplings mature into trees after 3 years. At the three year point, they'll either mature or die (they'll die if they're denied sufficient headroom, but they can also fail to mature due to some random factor, I think). Saplings can be trampled and killed prematurely. It's possible to delay sapling maturation by having stuff lying on top of them (logs and stockpiles work). Once the blockage is removed the over age saplings either mature or die basically instantly (I would guess it's over a 10 tick period).

Apart from the fire hazard, I believe cave moss also affects the display FPS negatively, as past experiments to cover them with paved roads have recovered display FPS, but I wouldn't call that experiment a proof. Display FPS: the FPS when viewing the that particular area, which probably doesn't have much or any effect when viewing a different area.

[Skorpion]

Be aware that moss/sapling growth makes your fortress vulnerable to fire.

Yes, but they DO allow underground pastures, so your food supply need never be tainted by fresh air and sunlight. Surely it's not that hard to just not set everything on fire
Even if you can't avoid it, firebreaks could be used.

[bloop_bleep]

Surely it's not that hard to just not set everything on fire

You'd be surprised. 

[martinuzz]

So cave trees do not pierce ceiling anymore if there's a floor over their heads, but the level above that floor is dug out?
I am frantically paving over every tree spawn because i remember a fort being horribly destroyed my trees breaking through the ceiling everywhere, including the ceiling supporting a river.
But I don't need to do that anymore?

[PatrikLundell]

Nope. I haven't even heard of ceiling breaking, so it was probably fixed quite some time ago (I've certainly heard about trees growing into walls crashing DF, but that's another. later, but still fixed, bug).

However, trees don't care about bridges, but happily grow through them, and bridges don't count as headroom blockers either. The bridges are not destroyed (although I haven't tried to operate them in that state), but passage tends to be blocked. Chopping the tree down restores passage without harming the bridge.

[deathpunch578]

I think if you operate the bridge it will break, or just crash the game. I'm not sure