Moon trees
These seeds flew further than most humans ever will
When Apollo 14 launched on 31 January 1971, it was carrying a little more than astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa. Stowed away in Roosa’s personal kit were hundreds of tree seeds that orbited the Moon in the Command Module along with Roosa while Shepard and Mitchell walked upon the lunar service. Five different species of tree seeds were taken into orbit: loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood and Douglas fir. The seeds were part of a NASA and US Forest Service (USFS) joint project, and upon their return to Earth were germinated by the USFS.
The resulting ‘Moon trees’ were then planted throughout the US and in other parts of the world as a living tribute to the Apollo program, and were part of the bicentennial celebrations in 1976. A loblolly pine was planted at the White House, and other trees were said to be planted in Brazil, Switzerland and even presented to the emperor of Japan. However, due to poor record-keeping, the exact locations of all the Moon trees is a mystery. NASA astronomer David Williams has taken it upon himself to search for them. When he began his endeavour in 1996, only 22 Moon tree locations were known, but now that number has climbed to over 90. Sadly, a number of the original Moon trees are no longer alive, including the White House loblolly pine, but there may be plenty more healthy Moon trees around the world simply waiting to be discovered.
Some Moon trees were grown next to their ‘control’ counterparts – which had not made the trip to space – so any differences in growth caused by exposure to microgravity could be assessed. No such differences were found, and many Moon trees of the world still flourish today, including the sycamore tree at NASA’s Goddard Visitor Center that was planted on 9 June 1977. Some of these Moon trees have even produced offspring, which are commonly referred to as half-Moon trees. One such halfMoon tree stands tall at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.