The space trees, or “shuttle gums” as they’re more commonly referred to, are by no means a secret to anyone. In fact, the university sees them as something to be proud of, and loves to brag about them. Despite this, there seem to be very few people aware of the fact that the space trees even exist, let alone that the university loves them.
The space trees are exactly what they sound like. They are trees. From space. Or rather, they were born in space. In 1984, Purdue alumnus Charles Walker was an astronaut aboard STS-41-D, the first mission ever flown both by Walker and the space shuttle Discovery. During the flight, the crew germinated 200 sweet gum tree seeds. Once the mission had returned to Earth and the necessary research on the baby trees had been done, Walker was allowed to donate five of these trees to Purdue. These trees were raised in Purdue’s nursery until they were large enough to plant outside, at which point they were planted around campus in generally inconspicuous locations.
In 1988, alumnus Jerry Ross was a crew member on STS-27, a similar mission aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. STS-27 germinated sycamore trees, rather than sweet gums, and one of these seeds was donated to Purdue following the mission. After undergoing the same nursing process as the previous seeds, the sycamore tree was planted near the south side of Lily Hall.
In addition to the sycamore near Lily, the other five trees can be found in Pickett Park, by the northwest corner of EE, at the south side of the Forestry products building, near the southeast corner of Forney, and just northwest of Grissom. They will have a small plaque at their base, explaining their history and significance, but will otherwise look no different than the rest of the trees around them. Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how close space is, and these trees that go relatively unnoticed stand testament to that.
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