Moon tree facts for kids

Bicentennial Moon Tree, planted in 1975 in Washington Square, Philadelphia

Moon Tree in front of Sebastian County Courthouse, in Fort Smith, Arkansas

Plaque at the base of the Fort Smith, Arkansas, Moon Tree.

Moon Tree, Waycross, Georgia

Moon trees are special trees. They grew from seeds that traveled to the Moon! In 1971, astronaut Stuart Roosa took about 500 tree seeds into orbit around the Moon. He was the pilot for the Apollo 14 mission.

The idea came from Ed Cliff, who was the head of the United States Forest Service. Roosa used to be a "smoke jumper," fighting forest fires. The seeds were from five types of trees: loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood, and Douglas fir.

History of Moon Trees

After their trip to the Moon, the seeds came back to Earth. They were sent to Forest Service stations in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Placerville, California. The goal was to make them sprout and grow.

Most of the seeds grew successfully. After a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 young trees. Some of these "Moon trees" were planted next to regular trees. These regular trees were used as a comparison. Even after more than 40 years, there was no clear difference between the Moon trees and the Earth trees.

Most of the Moon trees were given away in 1975 and 1976. They were planted across the country as part of the United States' 200th birthday celebration. Not all states received trees, because the trees were from southern or western species. A Loblolly Pine was planted at the White House. Trees were also planted in Brazil, Switzerland, and given to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

For many years, people didn't know where most of these Moon trees were. In 1996, a third-grade teacher named Joan Goble and her students found a Moon tree. It had a special plaque. Goble emailed NASA about her discovery.

Dave Williams, a NASA employee, received her email. He and most of his co-workers didn't even know about the Moon trees! Williams started looking into it. He found old newspaper articles that talked about Roosa bringing the seeds to space.

Williams then created a page on NASA's website. He asked the public for help finding the trees. The page also listed the locations and types of Moon trees that were known. Soon, people from all over the U.S. started contacting him. They had seen trees with plaques identifying them as Moon trees.

Williams began keeping a list of all the details about these trees. In 2011, an article in Wired magazine shared Williams' email address. It asked anyone with information about Moon trees to write to him. As of 2022, people are still working to find and identify these special trees. The NASA page is still active today.

In March 2021, the Royal Astronomical Society and the UK Space Agency asked for public help. They wanted to find up to 15 Moon Trees that might be growing in the United Kingdom. As of April 2021, none of these trees have been officially found in the UK.

Current Efforts to Plant More Moon Trees

The Moon Tree Foundation is an organization led by Rosemary Roosa. She is Stuart Roosa's daughter. This foundation works to plant Moon trees all over the world.

The foundation organizes events to plant new trees. These new trees grow from seeds produced by the original Moon trees.

Locations of Moon Trees

United States

City	State	Location	Species	Date planted	Ref.
Starkville	Mississippi	Dorman Hall, Mississippi State University	Sycamore	1975
Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	Washington Square Park	Sycamore*	May 6, 1975
Bethesda	Maryland	Society of American Foresters	Loblolly Pine	September 30, 1975
Fort Smith	Arkansas	Sebastian County Courthouse	Loblolly Pine	March 15, 1976
Washington	Arkansas	Old Washington Historic State Park	Loblolly Pine	March 15, 1976
Asheville	North Carolina	Botanical Gardens at Asheville	Sycamore	March 19, 1976
Birmingham	Alabama	Birmingham Botanical Gardens, near Lane Park	Sycamore	April 1976
Montgomery	Alabama	Alabama State Capitol Building	Loblolly Pine	April 1976
Elmer	Louisiana	Palustris Experiment Station, Kisatchie National Forest	Loblolly Pine	April 1976
Knoxville	Tennessee	Forestry Experiment Station, University of Tennessee	Loblolly Pine	April 1976
Sewanee	Tennessee	Woods Laboratories, University of the South	Sycamore	April 1976
Elizabethton	Tennessee	Fort Watauga, Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area	April 1976
Tullahoma	Tennessee	Arnold Air Force Base	Loblolly Pine*	April 1976
Olympia	Washington	Washington State Capitol Building	Douglas Fir	April 1976
Indianapolis	Indiana	Indiana Statehouse	Sycamore	April 9, 1976
Lansing	Michigan	Michigan State Capitol Building	Sycamore*	April 22, 1976
Flagstaff	Arizona	Frances Short Pond, formerly Flagstaff Junior High School	Douglas Fir*	April 30, 1976
Tucson	Arizona	Kuiper Space Sciences Building, University of Arizona	Sycamore	April 30, 1976
Salem	Oregon	Oregon State Capitol Building	Douglas Fir	April 30, 1976
Middletown	Pennsylvania	Core Creek Park	Sycamore	April 30, 1976
Arcata	California	California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt	3 Redwoods	May 1976
Athens	Georgia	Athens-Clarke County Planning Department	Loblolly Pine	May 1976
Lincoln City	Indiana	Lincoln State Park	Sycamore	May 1, 1976
Roseburg	Oregon	Roseburg Veteran Affairs Medical Center	Douglas Fir	May 3, 1976
Hollidaysburg	Pennsylvania	Highland Hall	Sycamore	May 5, 1976
Boise	Idaho	Idaho State Capitol Building	May 7, 1976
Cape Canaveral	Florida	Kennedy Space Center	Sycamore*	June 25, 1976
Ebensburg	Pennsylvania	Cambria County Courthouse	Sycamore	June 29, 1976
King of Prussia	Pennsylvania	Lockheed Martin Space Systems Building	Sycamore	June 30, 1976
Atchison	Kansas	International Forest of Friendship	Sycamore	July 24, 1976
Berkeley	California	Northwest area of Tilden Nature Area	2 Redwoods	July 26, 1976
Monterey	California	Friendly Plaza, near Colton Hall	Redwood	July 27, 1976
Steubenville	Ohio	Friendship Park	Sycamore	July 29, 1976
San Luis Obispo	California	Mission Plaza	Redwood	July 30, 1976
Troy	Alabama	Pioneer Museum of Alabama	Loblolly Pine	August 5, 1976
Tuscumbia	Alabama	Ivy Green, historic monument and birthplace of Helen Keller	Loblolly Pine	October 19, 1976
Auburn	Alabama	G.W. Andrews Forestry Sciences Lab, Auburn University	Loblolly Pine*	October 22, 1976
Sacramento	California	California State Capitol Building	Redwood	1976
Tallahassee	Florida	Doyle Conner Building, Plant Industry Headquarters	Loblolly Pine	1976
Waycross	Georgia	Okefenokee Regional Educational Service Agency	Loblolly Pine	1976
Cannelton	Indiana	Camp Koch Girl Scout Camp	Sycamore	1976
Tell City	Indiana	Hoosier National Forest Service Office	2 Sweetgums	1976
Monmouth	New Jersey	Monmouth County Courthouse	Sycamore*	1976
Corvallis	Oregon	Peavy Hall, Oregon State University	Douglas Fir	1976
Eugene	Oregon	Erb Memorial Union, University of Oregon	Douglas Fir	1976 (moved and replanted, 1987)
Gainesville	Florida	University of Florida	Sycamore	1977
Boise	Idaho	Lowell Elementary School	Loblolly Pine	1977
Greenbelt	Maryland	Goddard Space Flight Center	Sycamore	June 9, 1977
Perry	Florida	Forest Capital Museum State Park	Loblolly Pine	April 29, 1978
Lockeford	California	Lockeford Plant Materials Center	Redwood	1979
New Orleans	Louisiana	New Orleans River Walk	Loblolly Pine*	June 1983
Holliston	Massachusetts	Holliston Police Station	Sycamore	1982
Keystone Heights	Florida	Keystone Heights Library	Sycamore	1984
Tallahassee	Florida	Cascades Park	Sycamore	Unknown
Moscow	Idaho	Administration Building, University of Idaho	Sycamore*	Unknown
Waynesboro	Mississippi	Forestry Commission Nursery	Sycamore	Unknown
DeSoto	Missouri	Walthers Park	Sycamore	Unknown
Brevard	North Carolina	Biltmore Forest School, Pisgah National Forest	Sycamore	Unknown
Salem	Oregon	Private Residence	2 Douglas Firs	1973
Huntsville	Alabama	U.S. Space and Rocket Center	5 Sycamores, 2 Pines *	29 October 1976
Tuskegee	Alabama	VA Hospital (CAVHCS)	Loblolly Pine *	1976
Little Rock	Alabama	Forestry Commission Headquarters		15 March 1976
Monticello	Arkansas	University of Arkansas at Monticello		1977?
New Orleans	Louisiana	NASA Michoud Assembly Facility	Loblolly Pine (2?) *	July 1976
North Pembroke	Massachusetts	Historical Society	Sycamore? *	April 1976
Albuquerque	New Mexico	Civic Plaza	Douglas Fir *
Illinois Valley	Oregon	Siskiyou Smoke Jumper Base
Washington, D.C.	District of Columbia	White House	Loblolly Pine *	19 January 1977
Plano	Texas	Plano Senior High School	Sycamore *	4 November 2009
Houston	Texas	NASA Johnson Space Center	Loblolly Pine	February 2016
Silver City	New Mexico	Gough Park	Sycamore	14 August 1976
Bracey	Virginia	River Ridge Golf & Camping Club	Sycamore	31 January 1971
Doswell	Virginia	Kings Dominion	Sycamore	circa 1976

Other Countries with Moon Trees

An asterisk (*) means that tree is no longer alive.

See also

In Spanish: Árbol lunar para niños