In the Apollo 14 mission on January 31, 1971, the astronaut Stuart Allen Roosa took with him about 500 hundred seeds to orbit the Moon with him. The seeds were from five different types of trees: Sycamore, Loblolly Pine, Sweetgum, Redwood, and Douglas Fir.
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Some Sycamore trees alive today
are from seeds that traveled to the Moon. |
Upon return to Earth, the seeds that Roosa took with him to the Moon were sent to the Southern Forest Service Station in Mississippi and to the US Forest Service Western Station in California in an attempt germinate them. Surprisingly, nearly all the seeds germinated successfully.
One beautiful example of the Moon Trees is this Sycamore tree in Lincoln State Park, Lincoln City, Indiana.
But are there more trees like this one? And what about the existence of trees in the Moon in the early science fiction literature?
The answer to the above questions are in this more extensive article: What do you know about the Moon Trees?
