Trees are vital to our planet’s health. Just about everyone knows this. Why? Well, as they grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere. As a result, trees play a major role in Earth’s global carbon cycle and regulate our carbon budget.
Interestingly enough, there are some trees on our planet that connect us to the Moon. Yes, the Moon. Before you get ahead of yourself, it’s important to note that these trees never actually grew on the Moon. No. However, their seeds were taken into lunar orbit 50 years ago this month. As NASA says, “Apollo 14 launched in the late afternoon on January 31, 1971…five days later, Alan Shephard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the Moon while Stuart Roosa, a former US Forest Service smoke jumper, orbited above in the command module…Roosa packed hundreds of tree seed in his personal kit as part of a joint NASA/USFS project. Upon their return to Earth, the seeds were germinated by the US Forest Service.”
Many of these trees were planted in 1976 during our nation’s bicentennial. Today they stand as a tribute to Roosa and the Apollo program. In total, 83 trees were planted, 80 of them remain in the United States with two going to South America and one to Europe.
Since the trees were planted, many have forgotten about them. However, in 1996, former astronaut, David Williams made it his personal mission to find and catalog all of the trees. He started off with a list of just 21 Moon trees. He was able to track down 80 of them. Along the way, he discovered that 21 had died. According to Williams the trees didn’t die because of their time on the Moon but rather due to other causes.
The trees that have been located are in various states such as Alabama, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia. Two trees are in different locations in Brazil. To date, the European tree’s location is not known.
We hope you enjoyed this article about Moon trees. We hope you enjoy all of our articles as much as we enjoy bringing them to you.
