Asheville Botanical Gardens Moon Tree
Asheville, North Carolina
This sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) was planted at the Botanical Gardens at Asheville in North Carolina
in a ceremony on Arbor Day, March 19, 1976. However, it appears the original may have been
taken to a greenhouse and a different sycamore planted in its place at the ceremony,
later replaced with the real Moon Tree.
The plaque reads:
Sycamore
Platanus occidentalis L.
This sycamore was planted from a seed which traveled on the January 31, 1971
Apollo 14 flight to the Moon. Command pilot Stuart Roosa is a former
forest service smoke jumper.
Commemorating the nation's bicentennial and forestry's centennial.
1976
Photographs courtesy of Becky Priddy
Botanical Gardens at Asheville
Along the Way: The Asheville Moon Tree
- Pennsylvania Rambler (28 August 2018)
Moon Tree Home Page
Author/Curator:
Dr. David R. Williams, dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDCA, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258
NASA Official: Dave Williams, david.r.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 26 February 2021, DRW