Moon Tree

In downtown Monterey’s Friendly Plaza, near historic Colton Hall, stands a remarkable coast redwood known as the Moon Tree. This unassuming tree has an extraordinary backstory: it grew from a seed that traveled into lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Apollo 14 mission in 1971, carried by astronaut Stuart Roosa as part of a joint NASA and U.S. Forest Service experiment to see how space exposure might affect plant growth. After returning to Earth, the seeds were germinated and the seedlings were later planted across the United States during the nation’s bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Monterey’s Moon Tree — like others sprinkled around the country — looks like a typical California redwood but serves as a living testament to space exploration and human curiosity, linking the quiet streets of Monterey to the farthest reaches of space.