Gumnuts - Australian Native Seeds in Space

Australian Native Seeds in Space

7 August 2008 8:11 PM


Photo: NASA

Both the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian report that NASA's latest shuttle voyage (on the Discovery orbiter) is carrying seeds of the Wollemi Pine and other native Australian seeds.

The aim is to determine if there is any impact on the viability of seeds stored in space. The longer term aim is to assess the practicality of installing a seed bank in a space station, as a safeguard against plant species wiped out by an environmental disaster on Earth.

This is part of a wider project involving seed storage in space. The USA, Russia and China have launched grain and vegetable seeds in the past. Scientists in China have reported that space-bred tomato and green pepper seeds produced larger crops with a higher vitamin content.

In the same article in The Australian, it is reported that work to clone the Tree of Knowledge has been successful. The "Tree of Knowledge" (Corymbia aparrerinja) at Barcaldine in the central west of Queensland died in 2006 after being poisoned. "It was under this tree that an 1891 meeting of striking shearers led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party".

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