The seeds – loblolly pine, sycamore, sweet gum, red and Douglas fir – had traveled with Stuart Roosa, one of NASA’s three astronauts on a mission and a former parachute firefighter from the US Forest Service, sealed in small plastic bags stored in a metal container in his personal luggage. They were part of an experiment to see how the seeds react to the space environment.
Steve Miller, vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society and professor at University College London, believes that some of these seeds or seedlings reached in UK. He wants to know what happened to them, just like the UK Space Agency.
His search began after he asked a popular BBC radio show “Gardener’s Question Time” about a proper horticultural way to mark the bicentennial of the Royal Astronomical Society, celebrated in 2020.
Panelist and gardener Christine Walkden suggested that they look for the trees grown from the seeds of the moon they thought were planted in the UK and get a cut from one of them. However, no evidence has been found that they exist in the UK.
Two potential beneficiaries, Kew Gardens in London and the arboretum at Jodrell Bank, the UK’s largest space observatory, have no records of seeds coming to the UK, Miller said.
Now appeal to the public for any potential.
In the United States, many of the seeds were donated to state forestry organizations in 1975 and 1976 for planting as part of the country’s bicentennial holidays. According to NASA, a loblolly pine was planted at the White House. Trees were also planted in Washington Square in Philadelphia, in the International Friendship Forest at Valley Forge and various NASA universities and centers.
Miller managed to find a “half-moon tree” created from a cut taken from one of the trees of the moon that was planted in the United States. The half-moon tree grows in a private garden in the village of Flamstead in Chiltern Hills, north London. RAS was promised a cut from that tree for its bicentennial.
“We are incredibly grateful for that,” Miller said. “But we still want to know if Apollo 14 seeds have appeared in the UK and – if so – what happened to them?”
His fellow crew member, the late Roosa, decided to take something to honor the American forests, a tribute to his past as a smoke jumper – someone who parachutes into remote desert areas to extinguish wildfires.
However, scientists were later eager to study the seeds, as at that time few experiments had tested the effects of space on botanical specimens. The Forest Service studied the genetic structure of the seeds, investigating whether they will germinate and grow normally. (They did.)
The UK also hosts seven apples that have gone on a mission to the space station. The British Space Agency cultivated the seeds from the very tree that inspired Isaac Newton to discover gravity.
“Sending seeds into space helps us understand the effect of the unique environment on the biological makeup of seeds. Understanding the effects of space on non-germinated seeds will be vital to future space missions, including when we seek to support human life beyond Earth,” said Libby Jackson. Human exploration manager at the UK Space Agency, in a statement.
“Space has a wonderful way of inspiring people. We saw that emotion when the space seedlings grown from Newton’s apple seeds were planted on our soil. I will be interested to know if any of the seeds of the Moon came to Great Britain and what became of them “.