TROY, Ala. (WSFA) – Nearly 50 years ago, “Moon Trees” came to Earth for the first time. Two years ago, a second round of moon trees was made. Now they’re being distributed, and Alabama’s own Troy University has been selected to receive one of the special seedlings.
Despite the name, a moon tree is not a tree from the moon- there are no plants growing on the Earth’s moon. But trees can be taken to the moon, and then brought back.
In 1971, seeds were sent up on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. The seeds were sprouted after returning to Earth, then the special, space traveling saplings were planted across the US Alabama received five moon trees from that first batch. They are located in Birmingham, MontgomeryTuscumbia, Tuskegee and in Troy at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama.
Now Troy has been selected to receive a second moon tree from the most recent flight of seeds which traveled around the moon on the Artemis I mission in 2022.
The Artemis I trees, including sycamores, sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines and giant sequoias, traveled on board the Orion and were flown around the surface of the moon 270,000 miles from Earth from Nov. 16, 2022 to Dec. 11, 2022. Since returning, the seedlings have been under the care of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
NASA received hundreds of applications for the Artemis I moon trees and selected who would receive the saplings based each organization’s ability to care for the tree and how they plan to use it.
Dr. Alvin Diamond, biology professor and Director of the arboretum, said Troy has plans to use the tree for education.
“For the younger kids, to actually have something that’s been to outer space that they can see and touch will hopefully inspire them to look into STEM careers,” Diamond said. “With the older students, we can look at things about how space travel affects the human body and other living things and what we can do to protect people in space. Hopefully having something hands-on will inspire the students more than just reading from a book.”
Troy received his tree on Friday and will plant it in the Meadowloop Trail at the arboretum.
“We wanted to pick a place where there would be plenty of room for it to grow, and we thought the Meadowloop Trail would be best because it’s open and cleared out and nothing else would be competing with it,” Diamond said. “And it’ll be a reason for visitors to go out on the trails to come see the tree.”
Diamond said he is in the process of scheduling a day for a tree planting ceremony and will release that information to the public at a later date.
The first batch of trees was sent to nearly 50 institutions across the 48 contiguous US states. Additional trees will be sent in fall 2024, spring 2025 and fall 2025.
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