It has been announced that a cherry tree partially grown aboard the International Space Station has surprised Japanese scientists by blooming a full six years ahead of schedule. The tree also exhibited variation in the amount of petals it developed, each flower containing 5 as opposed to the parent tree which had 30. It is believed that the tree’s exposure to space may have impacted upon these anomalies in the tree’s development, raising questions about arboriculture in the space age.
