Historic Tree Grove: Moon Sycamore

American Sycamore
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) is a large hardwood tree that can grow to 100 feet in height. The leaves are extremely large, around the size of a dinner plate, and turn yellow in the late fall in Florida. The leaves are lost during the winter and return in spring, followed by round seed pods. The bark of this tree lacks the elasticity found in the bark of other trees, so rather than expanding with the tree, it often sloughs off in large pieces. This does not harm the health of the tree. Sycamores are native to the Eastern U.S.

Stuart Roosa and the Moon Trees
From January 31 to February 9th of 1971, Stuart A. Roosa was the pilot of the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon. While Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell descended to the Lunar surface, Roosa remained in a solo orbit around the moon for 33 hours. Each of the astronauts on the mission was allowed a personal preference pack. Alan Shepard took golf balls which he smacked about the lunar surface with a geology tool as a driver. Stuart Roosa, the former smoke jumper, took a package of tree seeds: namely Redwood, loblolly pine, sycamore, Douglas fir and sweetgum.

The tree seeds were picked by the US Forest Service genetics institutes and were selected by Stan Krugman, director of Forest Service genetics research in 1971. Stuart Roosa told NASA "I picked redwoods because they were well known, and the others because they would grow well in many parts of the United States". The seeds were germinated by the Forest Service with an excellent success rate and the moon trees were planted all around the country at girl scout camps, public libraries, universities and even at the White House. Our Moon Sycamore, like the one planted at Arlington, is a second generation tree now known as a half-moon tree.

Stuart Roosa remained an astronaut until his retirement from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1976. When he passed away in 1996, Roosa was buried in section 7A of the Arlington National Cemetery and a second generation Moon Sycamore was planted just up the hill from his grave in 2005.

Moon Garden
The Moon Garden is filled with plants with white, silver, and pastel flowers and foliage that reflect moonlight and seem to almost glow at night. Plants in this garden include:

• African Iris (Dietes vegeta) for its lovely white iris blooms.
• Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) for its beautiful blue blooms.
• Pentas (Pentas lanceolata) in white and palest pink
• White Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia) for its white flowers that are reminiscent of tiny snapdragons.
• Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) for its dusty silver white leaves.

Moon Sycamore Art and Artists

Artwork for the information sign was created by local artist Holly Bird. 

Bench artwork for the Moon Sycamore was created by Florida artist Terry Klaaren.