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[joeclark77]

I've embarked in a rocky wasteland with absolutely zero plants or trees on the surface.  Much to my surprise, when I breached the first cavern, I found it totally devoid of plant life, too.  No spores growing on the ground, no subterranean trees.  And no spores appeared on my soil layer.  I dug down, way down, and breached Cavern 3 (somehow totally missed Cavern 2), and it has normal plant growth.  After breaching Cavern 3, I finally have spores growing on my soil layer.  Is this normal?  I thought caverns always had plant life.

[Deboche]

it's normal. I think locations with flux stone always have spores but otherwise you have to breach a cavern. It's either a bug or digging into a cavern fills up your fortress with airborn spores that otherwise aren't present, whatever works for you

[Flarp]

Caverns unfortunately need to have an actual water pool (like, a large, round, open body of water, not water-filled tunnels) for vegetation to spawn inside them, or for them to release spores. If your first cavern layer didn't have a pool, it'll be barren (but still spawns creatures, I think).

[weenog]

Hmmm... muddy all of the barren 1st cavern so it winds up growing plants from cavern 3?

[Eric Blank]

Caverns unfortunately need to have an actual water pool (like, a large, round, open body of water, not water-filled tunnels) for vegetation to spawn inside them, or for them to release spores. If your first cavern layer didn't have a pool, it'll be barren (but still spawns creatures, I think).

Like he said, effectively. However, I had been under the impression that the occurrence of plant life depends on the abundance of water in the regional sense, rather than a local pool. Although, if there is enough water in the region then there's probably a pool on your map, I guess, so it more or less wouldn't matter.

I have had caverns with no life at all, or no life except for tower caps and fungiwood. Those did have mud, though.

[Flarp]

Hmmm... muddy all of the barren 1st cavern so it winds up growing plants from cavern 3?

If it starts out muddied (which it usually does) this happens when you breach a "living" cavern, but irritatingly the piles of mud obscure the moss tiles and seems to prevent anything else (shrubs/saplings) from taking hold.

[joeclark77]

Hmmm... muddy all of the barren 1st cavern so it winds up growing plants from cavern 3?

It did start as mud.  Haven't seen any growth there yet.  I guess it's the absence of a pool in the cavern that's the problem.
There are, in fact, animals in the cavern.  It's only barren of vegetable life.

I found Cavern 2 and it's the same story there.  My tree farms are going strong with Cavern 3 plants.  It's interesting how barren the map is.  My plan is to build an oasis in the desert to welcome weary travelers.  And kill them.  We have an aquifer so water won't be a problem.

[Tirion]

Caverns unfortunately need to have an actual water pool (like, a large, round, open body of water, not water-filled tunnels) for vegetation to spawn inside them, or for them to release spores. If your first cavern layer didn't have a pool, it'll be barren (but still spawns creatures, I think).

Like he said, effectively. However, I had been under the impression that the occurrence of plant life depends on the abundance of water in the regional sense, rather than a local pool. Although, if there is enough water in the region then there's probably a pool on your map, I guess, so it more or less wouldn't matter.

I have had caverns with no life at all, or no life except for tower caps and fungiwood. Those did have mud, though.

Definitely regional, I had waterless caverns with abundant plant life before.