Moon Trees

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Moon Tree at the
Goddard Space Centre 
Moon Trees - Sounds like something Enid Blyton might have conjured up for a children's book, right? But it's not the stuff of fairytales, there WERE seeds taken to the moon by astronauts on two of the NASA missions - the Apollo 14 mission of 1971 and the Artemis mission of 2022 (1).

The seeds on the Apollo mission were carried by Stuart Roosa who had worked as a smokejumper (2) for the US Forest Service before entering the astronaut programme. A thousand seeds were sent to Roosa by his old boss, the Head of the Forest Service, who was curious to discover whether zero gravity had any effect on resulting seedlings and trees.

Roosa took the seeds with him and kept them in the command module as it orbited the moon. 

The seeds were from the loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, Douglas Firs and redwood trees.  Why these trees? Maybe because they were economically or ecologically important? 

Unfortunately, during the decontamination process, the bags containing the seeds burst and it was feared that they may no longer be viable. However, the seeds were returned to the Forestry service and eventually over 400 germinated successfully. The resulting tree seedlings were dispersed throughout the USA, largely as part of the USA Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.


The space trees were sometimes planted up with control seedlings to see how the zero gravity trees fared in comparison with those that were kept on earth. The NASA web page for the trees states that after 40 years, there was no discernible difference in development. 

Sadly, it seems that there are no Moon Trees in the UK, although there were rumours (3) to be some here. The Be All And End All when it comes to all things 'plant' in the UK is Kew Gardens and their records indicate that no moon seeds or saplings were received on this side of the pond. HOWEVER. there may be a HALF-MOON tree - grown from a cutting taken from an original Moon Tree - growing in a private garden in Flamstead, in the Chilterns. 

Does your state have a Moon Tree? You can check the NASA list HERE and discover more about the projects.



(1) I'll cover the Artemis Moon Trees in a different post 

(2) A smokejumper is an elite US firefighter who is parachuted in to remote areas to fight wildfires.

(3) On BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, panellist and gardener Christine Walden said that she had heard of15 being brought into Britain.

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