Indianapolis Moon Tree

In the courtyard of the Indiana State Forestry building on West Washington Street stands an unremarkable-looking American sycamore. Its sycamore seed was carried to the moon and back on the Apollo 14 mission, brought home, germinated by the US Forest Service, and planted here in 1976.

A small plaque identifies the tree. The site sees almost no visitors despite being two blocks from the canal and four from Monument Circle.

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A story
The seed orbited the moon 34 times aboard Apollo 14 in 1971 in the personal kit of astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former Forest Service smokejumper. NASA distributed the seedlings to celebrate the US Bicentennial in 1976. Most of the original moon trees have died; the Indianapolis sycamore is one of perhaps 50 surviving.

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