Apollo 14 Moon Tree

On January 31, 1971, Apollo 14 carried three astronauts to the moon along with hundreds of tree seeds. Upon return, the U.S. forest service successfully germinated a small number of seeds and dispersed the saplings during the bicentennial celebrations of 1975 and 1976.

This specimen comes from a surviving moon tree: a Sycamore living on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. In 2014, The tree was damaged in a storm and a fallen limb was preserved by Senior Research Specialist and White House Champion for Change, Dolores Hill.