Apr 14, 2014 10:26 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

With deforestation an ever-present issue and the increasing role of science and technology in helping to protect the world's environment, the cherry tree seed that traveled through space for three-quarters of a year and sprouted buds twice as fast as usual could hold important implications for both causes.

Twice as fast is a more meaningful term for cherry trees than most trees/plants. Typically, it takes ten years for such trees to flower. One of the 250 seeds (taken from the legendary Chujohimeseigan-zakura cherry tree) that spent eight months at the International Space Station bloomed in four years, according to Red Orbit.

Some speculate that exposure to "space waves" may have altered the seed's physiology. During their eight-month trip, the seeds circled the planet over 4,000 times. Perhaps that also contributed to the effect. Whatever it was, scientists only have theories at this point. Since the seeds were taken into space as part of a children's education program and not an official scientific experiment, the evidence is limited to the one precocious tree. Perhaps if more also sprout ahead of schedule in the next year or more, scientists will be able to make somewhat firmer conclusions.

"There is a theoretical possibility that the cosmic environment has had a certain impact on agents in the seeds that control budding and the growth process, but we have absolutely no answer as to why the trees have come into bloom so fast," Kaori Tomita, a botanist at the University of Tsukuba who participated in the project, told Asahi Shimbun.

Not only did the now 13-foot tree develop faster than usual, but it was the first seed to ever sprout from the Chujohimeseigan-zakura cherry tree, located at the Ganjoji Temple in Higashiomi, Japan, and believed to be over 1,000 years old. 

"We are amazed to see how fast it has grown," Masahiro Kajita, chief priest at the Ganjoji Temple said on Friday, Red Orbit reported. "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."

There is just one downside to the cherry tree's rapid growth. Rather than the 30 petals per flower ratio of the Chujohimeseigan-zakura tree, the one from space has just 5 petals per flower. 

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