In the 1970s, a bold idea emerged: to take seeds on a space voyage and then return to plant them on Earth.
For decades, there have been “extraterrestrial entities” peacefully living on Earth. However, these are not aliens. What we are talking about are “Moon trees,” whose seeds were brought back from space.
Seeds from the Moon
One of the “Moon trees” planted in Monterey, California (USA).
In 1971, Stuart Roosa, a former employee of the U.S. Forest Service, along with NASA astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, undertook the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon.
During this mission, Roosa brought back 500 seeds, which included five different types of trees, primarily redwood, pine, fig, and sycamore.
Although these seeds did not originate from the Moon, and many did not even leave the spacecraft, scientists still refer to them as rare treasures.
They were named “Moon trees” once they were brought back to Earth for planting. The purpose of this endeavor was to verify whether there were any differences in characteristics between these varieties and their counterparts on Earth.
Miraculous Survival
Moon trees planted across the United States. (Illustrative image).
Almost immediately upon returning to Earth, the mission faced the risk of failure as the seed bags were exposed to a vacuum and ruptured during the decontamination process. The seeds got mixed up, and no one knew if the “Moon seeds” could survive.
Geneticist Stan Krugman, who managed the project, manually separated the seeds and sent them to Forestry Service laboratories for germination. Fortunately, many seeds successfully sprouted and grew into seedlings.
Nearly 50 years after the Apollo 14 mission, scientists still have not found significant differences between these tree varieties and their counterparts on Earth.
They are all marked with a plaque reading “Moon tree” and are scattered throughout the United States.
