An astronaut hid seeds in his luggage bound for the Moon: decades later they are still growing across the country

Moon Trees. What comes to mind when you hear that term?

In 1971, Stuart Roosa – the Apollo 14 command module pilot – carried hundreds of tree seeds around the Moon. They traveled into space and returned to Earth, where they later took root. Today, the trees grown from those seeds are scattered across the United States, standing outside schools, courthouses, parks, state capitols, NASA centers and memorial sites.

The botanical experiment in space

The Moon Trees project was born from the combination of Stuart Roosa’s background and an initiative by the U.S. Forest Service. Before becoming a military pilot, test pilot and NASA astronaut, Roosa had worked as a smokejumper – a forest firefighter who parachuted into remote wildfire zones. That connection led Edward P. Cliff, then chief of the U.S. Forest Service, to propose that Roosa carry tree seeds into space aboard Apollo 14.

NASA backed the idea, turning it into an official collaboration with the Forest Service. The scientific side of the project was led by forest geneticist Stan Krugman, who carefully selected seeds from five species: sweetgum, redwood, Douglas fir, loblolly pine and sycamore. For the mission, the seeds were packed into small sealed bags inside a metal container that Roosa carried in his personal kit. At the same time, an identical batch of seeds remained on Earth as a control group, allowing researchers to compare the development of both sets after the mission.

The story of the seeds that orbited the Moon

During the 1970s, the Moon Trees became something of a phenomenon. Many of the young trees grown from the seeds were distributed to the White House, Washington Square in Philadelphia, Valley Forge, the International Friendship Forest in Kansas, state capitols, universities and NASA facilities, where their growth could be closely monitored. Some were even sent abroad, including to Brazil and Switzerland, while one was presented as a gift to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

What happened to the Moon Trees?

The outcome of the experiment, however, proved somewhat disappointing. In the end, the Moon Trees differed from their Earth-bound counterparts only by the commemorative plaques placed beside them. Over the years, the study showed that the control seeds grew in exactly the same way as those that had made the remarkable journey around the Moon.

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