Montgomery County Courthouse New Home Of "Moon Tree"
By Jim Melwert
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- A new tree, recently planted outside the Montgomery County Courthouse, is "out of this world."
Certain types of trees that were grown in the 1970s became known as "moon trees," because they came from seeds that orbited the moon with the Apollo 14 program.
A descendant of sorts of one of those trees was planted Thursday in a ceremony led by the county commissioners, replacing an oak tree that had stood for decades by the courthouse steps near Swede and Airy Streets. When that tree had to be removed several years ago, commissioner Bruce Castor says he learned that a moon tree in Philadelphia was dying and that Morris Arboretum was developing cuttings from that tree so it could be preserved.
"And I thought it would be a good idea," Castor says, "if we tried to get one of those to replace the tree here that had been so majestically shading the courthouse for all those decades."
That was back in 2011. Now, four years later, the tree is finally strong enough to be planted on its own.