Roots in the earth, origins in space

MONTGOMERY | Trees may be anchored to the earth, but four in Alabama got their start in outer space.

At least four moon trees have been grown from seeds that circled the moon on an Apollo flight nearly 40 years ago.

One of the moon trees, a loblolly pine, stands tall at Helen Keller's birthplace, Ivy Green, in Tuscumbia. Moon trees also are planted in Birmingham, at the Capitol in Montgomery and in Troy.

Moon trees originated on the Apollo 14 flight in 1971 when the late astronaut Stuart Roosa took hundreds of seeds on his flight circling the moon, a trip of half a million miles.

'They planted it, and it was a little seedling, and we've watched it grow for 30 years,' said Sue Pilkilton, executive director of the Helen Keller Birthplace.

Roosa told the media that as a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper he knew forestry officials who suggested he take seeds with him.

Between 400 and 500 seeds were launched into space on Jan. 31, 1971. Among them were loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood and Douglas fir. Five days later, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were on the moon while Roosa and the seeds remained in orbit.

After returning to earth, the seeds were germinated and seedlings planted across the country for the nation's bicentennial in 1976.

'I've wondered if they wanted to see if by chance taking it to the moon had an effect on the growth of the tree,' Pilkilton said.

That's exactly the reason why the seeds were transported into space, said David Williams, a scientific curator for NASA's National Space Science Data Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. He is, for lack of a more formal title, the moon tree storykeeper.

'They were serious, but the main point was more of a [NASA] public relations project,' Williams said.

He said the seeds almost didn't make it. After being subjected to decontamination tests back on earth, the seed container burst open and the seeds scattered. They were recollected and grew anyway.

Williams said he started tracking the moon trees after an Indiana teacher told him about her students finding one at a Girl Scout camp.

'It was kind of interesting, and I got in touch with the NASA history office and searched on the Web and found little bits and pieces … and found a few moon trees,' he said in a telephone interview. Williams created a Web page for the moon trees.

'Every once in a while I'll get a call on a moon tree, and I'll add it to the list,' he said. 'People are pretty excited about it.'

Alabama's four trees were planted in 1976: A sycamore at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and loblolly pines at the Troy Pioneer Museum of Alabama, the Capitol in Montgomery and Ivy Green, according to the Web site. Second-generation moon trees are growing in Enterprise and at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The Capitol tree was a seedling given to then-Gov. George Wallace by state forester Bill Moody and forest service representatives.

The Ivy Green tree was planted by the Alabama Garden Club, Pilkilton said.

Pilkilton said visitors to Keller's home are amazed by the tree.

'It's always a high point, of course, for visitors when they come because the [Alabama Space and Rocket Center] is about an hour away from us,' she said. 'It's a great added attraction.'

'It's kind of fun, these moon trees planted all over the country,' Williams said. 'It's sort of a living reminder of the Apollo program that we have.'