I noticed the following article in a clipping (from an issue of USA Today) posted at my local coffee shop:
NASA launches search for ‘moon trees’
Of course, this led me to wonder where North Carolina’s “moon trees” are located. According to NASA’s Moon Tree web page, we have two known trees (both sycamores), one in the Botanical Gardens at Asheville and one at the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest. I wonder if there are any others?
Idle thought: If the moon tree planting were being undertaken today, it surely would have its own web page from the start, and the fate of each tree would be tracked systematically. Now, instead, the Internet is being called on to reconstruct the diaspora. Imagine attempting such a project without it!
Back in November, I did a post for “A View To Hugh,” about the launch of Apollo 14. Didn’t know about the trees at that time.
http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/morton/index.php/2010/11/i-too-am-glad-i-was-there/
Cheryl: Thanks for linking to the Forest History Society’s blog post on the moon trees. Very interesting!
Google Maps shows a Moon Tree in Kerr Park in Rowan County
(east of Salisbury near Millbridge community) The NASA page
doesn’t list it, so I don’t know the species.
That’s actually a second generation moon tree, most likely a child or clipping from one of the other two trees in NC. The Rowan county one is counted among the second gen site mentioned on the linked page. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_trees/second_gen_moon_tree.html
I’m actually headed out that way before long to get some photos for that site.
There’s one on the campus of Haywood Community College in western North Carolina (Clyde).