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[Warlord255]

I have a two "sheds" of soil on the doorstep of my eventually-planned-to-be-a-massive-southward-facing-rampart-fortress, which are made primarily of Black Sand. My fort is incorporating a Bottomless Pit, and directly adjacent to it is a Cave Pool full of skeletal baddies.

Now, herein lies the oddity; I have a tower cap growing in one of the sheds, a full 52 tiles away from the pool.

Any explanations/thoughts? And would this justify trying a megaproject of a true tower-cap forest, using surface pools as supplements?

[Golgath]

As soon as you discover your underwater water source, tower caps will grow in any muddied underground area.  Or that is what I have been led to believe.

[Warlord255]

Yea, except this is not muddied. It's just plain ol' sand.

...

...

...I have 3x3 embark-map tiles' worth of soil.

[Hague]

Tower caps will grow in any INSIDE DARK soil. Soil means sand, mud, clay, clay loam, loamy sand, sandy clay loam, sandy clay or what have you. I've seen tower caps grow in clay and sand myself, personally. The funny part is that when they grow they are green and are functionally identical to trees.

I haven't tried experimenting with other underground biomes. Anyone ever successfully make a  [BIOME:UNDERGROUND_LAVA] tree sprout?

[Warlord255]

So I CAN mine out a ridiculous tower-cap forest?

AWESOME.

[Hamster Man]

Yep. It'll take a long long long time to populate though, and will only populate if its connected (as in there is a dug-out path) to the underground pool, or if it is connected to other vegetation (meaning you have a huge section of sand dug out of a hill but still with a ceiling, so it's INSIDE DARK). At least that's what my experiments have revealed.

[Warlord255]

Yep. It'll take a long long long time to populate though, and will only populate if its connected (as in there is a dug-out path) to the underground pool, or if it is connected to other vegetation (meaning you have a huge section of sand dug out of a hill but still with a ceiling, so it's INSIDE DARK). At least that's what my experiments have revealed.

This part may prove difficult; but for the latter requirement, punching a small cieling hole and letting some grass grow ought to suffice.

[slink]

I had a huge one, as in about 50 x 100, that was only connected to the underground river by staircases.  I made it on rock which was irrigated from a brook.  There were lots of tower caps there when I quit.  The rock was one level down from the surface.  The river was quite a few more levels down.

[Magua]

The tower cap farm doesn't have to be connected to anything.  Annoyingly, I've had tower caps sprout up in my underground water ways when I drain them for maintenance, 15 z-levels below the surface, with no vegetation anywhere nearby.

[Time Kitten]

Would my farm area 4 map tiles away not be sprouting plants because I walled off my river, then?

[Teeto_K]

I walled off my river and have highly successful Towercap operations.

[d3c0y2]

ive had a tower cap sprout up in a water pumping system, as the pumps would make the area have no water below them obviously, it caused a reverse that flooded my lower fort.

[Hamster Man]

The tower cap farm doesn't have to be connected to anything.  Annoyingly, I've had tower caps sprout up in my underground water ways when I drain them for maintenance, 15 z-levels below the surface, with no vegetation anywhere nearby.

I can't seem to get tower-caps to grow on, say, my sand farms that's 1z below the surface. So maybe it has to be on the same level or below?

As far as the underground waterways, I always pave those with stone to prevent just that from happening.

[JoRo]

My fortress straddles two biomes, and in the soil on the mountain side I have a mined sandy area that is chock-full of cave plants and tower-caps.  On the non-mountain side, I have a mined sandy area completely devoid of vegetation save for my farm plots.  I'm going to hypothesize that underground plants grow in the mountain biomes.
(EDIT: Disproven!)

As far as the underground waterways, I always pave those with stone to prevent just that from happening.

Stone or not, if it gets covered in mud (which it will if there's water) it seems it can support a tower-cap.

[Dorten]

I can't seem to get tower-caps to grow on, say, my sand farms that's 1z below the surface. So maybe it has to be on the same level or below?

As far as the underground waterways, I always pave those with stone to prevent just that from happening.

To grow towercaps (and any other trees BTW) on unmuddied soil, you have to verifiy, that it's not only soil floor over the wall of rock, but also has a full soil wall on the level below.

To check this behavior just mine out a soil below forest, leaving only floor, and see: now it will not produce new trees.