Cherry Blossom Grown from Space Seeds a Bit Weird
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Tokyo, Japan, but after their space journey as seeds, some of the cherry trees are strangely different.
This year, the more than 3,000 flowering cherry trees in Washington, D.C., will turn spring into a pink-and-white bipartisan town between April 8 and 12, the National Park Service said today.
In 1912, Japan sent a second batch of trees, which became the "first trees."
Plaques mark the two original trees believed to be those planted by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese ambassador, in a small ceremony on March 27, 1912.
One of the cherry trees' strongest advocates was Eliza Ruhama Scidmore, a world traveler, writer and editor and the first female board member of the National Geographic Society.
Taft saying, "I have taken the matter up and am promised the trees."
The plan quickly gained steam when wealthy Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine, who discovered adrenaline, among other things, and the Japanese consul in New York proposed a donation of 2,000 trees from the city of Tokyo, paid for by Takamine.
http://news.discovery.com/space/cherry-blossom-grown-from-space-seeds-a-little-weird-140411.htm?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=DNews&utm_campaign=DNewsSocial
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Tokyo, Japan, but after their space journey as seeds, some of the cherry trees are strangely different.
This year, the more than 3,000 flowering cherry trees in Washington, D.C., will turn spring into a pink-and-white bipartisan town between April 8 and 12, the National Park Service said today.
In 1912, Japan sent a second batch of trees, which became the "first trees."
Plaques mark the two original trees believed to be those planted by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese ambassador, in a small ceremony on March 27, 1912.
One of the cherry trees' strongest advocates was Eliza Ruhama Scidmore, a world traveler, writer and editor and the first female board member of the National Geographic Society.
Taft saying, "I have taken the matter up and am promised the trees."
The plan quickly gained steam when wealthy Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine, who discovered adrenaline, among other things, and the Japanese consul in New York proposed a donation of 2,000 trees from the city of Tokyo, paid for by Takamine.
http://news.discovery.com/space/cherry-blossom-grown-from-space-seeds-a-little-weird-140411.htm?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=DNews&utm_campaign=DNewsSocial
