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'Moon tree' takes root at Farm and Ranch Museum
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LAS CRUCES — A young Loblolly pine tree stands nearly three feet high in a garden, ordinary in every respect except for a remarkable origin story: The seed from which this tree sprouted has flown around the moon.
The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum unveiled the “moon tree” Friday, where it has been planted as part of the design of an outdoor classroom and garden space being built in collaboration with Tortugas Pueblo.
The tree’s seed was among five species that orbited the moon for four weeks on NASA’s Orion spacecraft in 2022. The project emulated a research payload 50 years prior, when astronaut Stuart Roosa brought tree seeds into space on the Apollo 14 mission, where they were later studied as they germinated after returning to Earth and then distributed to national monuments or other recipients.
As part of a joint initiative with the U.S. Forest Service, NASA invited museums, universities and other educational institutions to apply for seedlings. The Farm and Ranch Museum’s instructional coordinator, Paul Steward, applied in September 2023 and received it the following April.
While the new garden space remains under construction, and no opening date has been announced, Steward told the Journal public curiosity motivated the museum to unveil the tree Friday. It is easily viewed from behind a fence at the front of the museum.
Steward said the tree links the region’s agricultural heritage to the region’s historical place in aerospace research and development — including growing plants in space.
“We’re able to contact with the younger generation a lot better when we’re able to do things that are more recent. It sparks that curiosity with them,” he said.
