Navigate
X

Zinnia Is The First Flower Grown in Space: Astronaut Scott Kelly Shares The Picture In Twitter

The first flowers to ever grow in space are blooming on the International Space Station (ISS) today. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has tweeted a photo of the first ever flower grown in space on Saturday. The genus of plant is the zinnia, a flower native in the Southwestern United States. The successful growth builds on another experiment held in early 2015, in which astronaut’s aboard the International Space Station grew red romaine lettuce.

“Yes, there are other life forms in space!” Kelly tweeted with a photo of an orange Zinnia.

Zinnias are edible blooming plants that are usually on the easy ends in the spectrum to grow. The flower was grown as part of an experiment astronauts are conducting on how plants grow in microgravity. They’re the second plant to be tested in the space station’s hydroponic VEGGIE lab. Besides the flower, the team also grew lettuce in space, after a failed first attempt last year.

The flowers were grown inside the Veggie lab aboard ISS which was installed in early May 2014. With the success of this experiment, Zinnia has become the first flowering plant grown outside Earth’s atmosphere. Zinnias are most commonly eaten in salads, but also made a tasty accent to tacos.

The flowers appear similar to those grown on Earth, except for the curled edges of the petals, which could be due to the zero-gravity conditions. This has also paved the way for flowering crops such as tomatoes to be grown in space.

“Growing a flowering crop is more challenging than growing a vegetative crop such as lettuce,” said Gioia Massa, NASA Kennedy Space Center payload scientist for Veggie in May, 2014. “Lighting and other environmental parameters are more critical.”

Although the zinnia plant is inedible, it was chosen specifically by the crew because of its properties. It could eventually lead to fruits and vegetables being grown in space to provide some welcomed fresh produce on the ISS.

The system, according to scientists, uses red, blue, and green LED lights to simulate sunlight, making the successful growth of the flower.

“Growing zinnia plants will help advance our knowledge of how plants flower in the Veggie growth system, and will enable fruiting plants like tomatoes to be grown and eaten in space using Veggie as the in-orbit garden,” Trent Smith, Veggie project manager at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida said.