This tree on Mars Hill University’s campus is out of this world. No, literally. Before the American Sweetgum sprouted, its seed spent about four weeks in lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission in November 2022.
It’s from NASA’s Moon Tree program, a STEM and conservation education initiative. In partnership with the US Department of Agriculture Forest Services, seeds of five tree species were sent into the Orion spacecraft, grown into seedlings, and sent to universities, museums, and monuments across the US.
On Friday, April 25 — Arbor Day — MHU held an official dedication ceremony for the tree, which students voted to name Luna. Besides just being plain cool, the tree provides a wealth of educational opportunities. Dr. Nicole Soper Gorden, associate professor of biology, explained that the tree will support the botany department in tracking tree phenology, inform history classes, inspire a science fiction-based elective course, and bolster MHU’s existing Tree Trail.
Bonus: Western Carolina University and Haywood Community College also received American Sweetgum moon trees last year. It’s Haywood Community College’s second moon tree — the school has an original 1976 Sycamore on campus as well.
An OG moon tree
And there’s another, more mature, out-of-this-world tree even closer to home. The Asheville Botanical Garden boasts a tall and mighty Sycamore tree, planted on Arbor Day in 1976. The seed traveled to space in 1971 aboard the Apollo 14 flight, the third US mission to land on the moon and the first “moon tree” mission.
Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and command pilot + former US Forest Service smokejumper Stuart Roosa brought hundreds of seeds into space to study how the low gravity conditions would affect germination. Spoiler alert: The trees grow the same as their Earthly equivalents.
Although it’s believed that all the seeds from the Apollo 14 mission were planted, there was no list tracking each tree. Over the years, the locations of many of the original moon trees have been sussed out.
