UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A four-foot-tall American sycamore sapling grown from a seed that orbited the moon will be planted in the children’s garden at the Arboretum at Penn State.
The arboretum is one of 300 locations chosen by NASA from more than 1,000 applicants to receive "Moon Tree" saplings, said Casey Sclar, H.O. Smith Endowed Director of The Arboretum at Penn State and director of the Commonwealth Arboreta Network.
The arboretum’s application was a joint effort of the seven Penn State campuses that so far make up the Arboreta Network. The arboretum hopes eventually to take cuttings from this tree to grow Moon Tree descendants on all Penn State campuses, Sclar said. Penn State Behrend in Erie already has a Moon Tree — an American sweetgum — which was planted outside the School of Science’s Prischak Building in May.
“The Commonwealth Arboreta Network is providing beauty and benefits to every Penn State Campus while fulfilling our land-grant promise of teaching, research and community service in a way no other university has before.” Sclar said. “This tree from NASA is recognition that the sky is the limit in our growth potential.”
The first Moon Trees were planted in the 1970s, after astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, took hundreds of tree seeds on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon in 1971. After Apollo 14 returned, the seeds were germinated by the Forest Service, then planted throughout the United States and the world.
For the new generation of Moon Trees, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to fly five species of tree seeds — sycamores, sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, and giant sequoias — aboard Artemis I as part of a national STEM engagement and conservation education initiative. The Artemis I mission launched on Nov. 16, 2022, and splashed down on Dec. 11, 2022.
The Penn State Moon Tree will be planted on Nov. 25 in an expanded area of the Childhood’s Gate Children’s Garden, said Marek Pundzak, the arboretum’s director of horticulture and operations.
“We want kids to be inspired to see the connection between science, technology and gardens, and that it all weaves together,” he said.
A wrought iron enclosure will protect the young tree from deer and rabbits. The sycamore, a native of the Eastern United States, could eventually grow to be 80 to 100 feet tall.
NASA chose institutions based on their suitability to care for the various tree species and their ability to maximize educational opportunities around the life and growth of the tree in their communities.
“A new era of Moon Trees will one day stand tall in communities across America,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement announcing the recipients of the Moon Trees. “The Artemis Generation will carry forth these seedlings that will be fertile ground for creativity, inspiration and discovery for years to come.”
The arboretum plans to feature the Moon Tree with special programming during Earth Day/Earth Week activities in April 2025.