OMG" 'Cherry tree from space' mystery baffles Japan
Tokyo (AFP) - A cosmic mystery is
uniting monks and scientists in Japan after a cherry tree grown from a
seed that orbited the Earth for eight months bloomed years earlier than
expected -- and with very surprising flowers.
Its early blooming baffled Buddhist brothers at the ancient temple in central Japan where the tree is growing.
"We
are amazed to see how fast it has grown," Masahiro Kajita, chief priest
at the Ganjoji temple in Gifu, told AFP by telephone.
"A
stone from the original tree had never sprouted before. We are very
happy because it will succeed the old tree, which is said to be 1,250
years old."
The wonder pip was
among 265 harvested from the celebrated "Chujo-hime-seigan-zakura"
tree, selected as part of a project to gather seeds from different kinds
of cherry trees at 14 locations across Japan.
The
stones were sent to the ISS in November 2008 and came back to Earth in
July the following year with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, after
circling the globe 4,100 times.
Some were sent for laboratory
tests, but most were ferried back to their places of origin, and a
selection were planted at nurseries near the Ganjoji temple.
By
April this year, the "space cherry tree" had grown to around four
metres (13 feet) tall, and suddenly produced nine flowers -- each with
just five petals, compared with about 30 on flowers of the parent tree.
It normally takes about 10 years for a cherry tree of the similar variety to bear its first buds.
The Ganjoji temple sapling is not the only early-flowering space cherry tree.
Of the 14 locations in which the pits were replanted, blossoms have been spotted at four places.
Two
years ago, a young tree bore 11 flowers in Hokuto, a mountain region
115 kilometres (70 miles) west of Tokyo, around two years after it was
planted.
It was of a variety that normally only comes into flower at the age of eight.
Cosmic rays
The
seeds were sent to the ISS as part of "an educational and cultural
project to let children gather the stones and learn how they grow into
trees and live on after returning from space," said Miho Tomioka, a
spokeswoman for the project's organiser, Japan Manned Space Systems
(JAMSS).
"We had expected the (Ganjoji) tree to blossom about 10 years after planting, when the children come of age," she added.
Kaori
Tomita-Yokotani, a researcher at the University of Tsukuba who took
part in the project, told AFP she was stumped by the extra-terrestrial
mystery.
"We still cannot rule
out the possibility that it has been somewhat influenced by its
exposure to the space environment," she said.
Tomita-Yokotani,
a plant physiologist, said it was difficult to explain why the temple
tree has grown so fast because there was no control group to compare its
growth with that of other trees.
She said cross-pollination with another species could not be ruled out, but a lack of data was hampering an explanation.
"Of
course, there is the possibility that exposure to stronger cosmic rays
accelerated the process of sprouting and overall growth," she said.
"From a scientific point of view, we can only say we don't know why."
Wakata is back aboard the ISS, where he is in command of the station.
The
astronaut took part in a video link-up on Thursday with Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy,
chatting about his daily life hundreds of kilometres above the Earth.
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