Why are there many plants that can be grown in a greenhouse, but some, like ramps and truffles, that can only be grown in nature with conditions that can’t be mimicked in a greenhouse?
In: Biology
Truffles are the mushroom of a fungus that is symbiotic with the roots of certain trees (most notably oak and hazel). They take up to a decade to become established (and you have to grow the trees too). this obviously requires a rather large space and oak trees need temperature variation anyway so being in a greenhouse wouldn’t really help in the first place. Truffles can be cultivated, and are cultivated, but they are cultivated in forests not greenhouses.
Ramps (and wild ginseng) are slow growing specialists in forest understories. The bulb/root takes several years to mature and (in ginseng anyway) is considered more flavorful/powerful because it has matured slowly in the relatively harsh conditions of the wild.
You could raise these in greenhouses but….first of all, like oak trees (and many other fruit trees and berry bushes) they are adapted to seasonal climates and need to be cold in the winter to mature properly. The whole point of a greenhouse is to keep things from getting cold, so there’s not much point. You can grow them in a suitable patch of forest after sowing them there, but you have to wait for them to grow to maturity which takes up to a decade. Also farmed plants can lack the marketing power of wild ones (wild ginseng sells for much more)
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