Historical Name: Moon
Common Name: Sycamore
Latin Name: Platanus occidentalis
On January 31, 1971 Apollo 14 set off for the moon carrying Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and Stuart Roosa. Also on board were hundreds of tree seeds, stored there by Roosa, a former forest fire smoke jumper, in a tribute to the U. S. Forest Service. Most of the seeds germinated when sown back on Earth after the flight. In 1975 and 1976 the seedlings were distributed throughout the country and the world in honor of our country’s bicentennial celebration, but few records were kept on where they actually were sent. No one knows for sure how many of these trees still survive, but unless humans return to the moon, they may soon be the only living things left that have made that journey. On April 9, 1976 one of these trees was planted at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis. In March 2011 seeds were collected from that American Sycamore tree and grown in UCNJ’s greenhouses and nursery. In April 2015 one of these offspring of an original Moon Sycamore was planted in the Historic Tree Grove.