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.
The four-year-old sapling -- grown from a cherry stone that spent
time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) -- burst into
blossom on April 1, possibly a full six years ahead of Mother
Nature's normal schedule.
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.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata holds a pack of cherry seeds in
the International Space Station,
