At the Samara Botanical Garden, biologists planted seeds that had been in space.

Seeds from the Korolev Botanical Garden of Samara University, which returned to Earth from space, will take root in their native land. Biologists planted the first batch of "cosmonauts" in the botanical garden's "space bed."

Previously, a team of "botanical travelers" was sent into space aboard the Bion-M No. 2 orbital biolaboratory. The idea of ​​sending plants into space, and even growing them there, dates back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. This isn't the first generation of such space travelers, but agricultural seeds have been sent into orbit before. Research has shown that the germination rate of such seeds is approximately 70-80%, compared to 30-50% of seeds that haven't left Earth.

A batch of plant seeds listed in the Red Data Books of Russia and the Samara Region was recently sent into orbit. The detachment included approximately 4,500 seeds of 25 rare plants from the Botanical Garden. These included seeds of goldenrod, Schrenk's tulip, thin-leaved peony, three-lobed azure, papaver bracteatum, gypsophila zhigulevskii, Crimean asphodel, common pasqueflower, heart-leaved kale, and other valuable plants. The detachment also included descendants of plants from the first space detachment: scientists wanted to test how spaceflight might affect the seeds of the "cosmonauts."

The choice fell on plants listed in the Red Data Book due to the fact that they are much more sensitive to environmental changes than plants used in agriculture.

As Elena Kayurova, an agronomist at the Flora Department of the Samara University Botanical Garden, explained to MK, the experiment aims to obtain data on the impact of space on biological material—in this case, plant seeds. Due to their heightened sensitivity, the seeds of rare plants, like their adult counterparts, more clearly display any physiological and morphological changes. Humans are part of an ecosystem, and the more elements it contains, the more stable it is. If people come closer to Tsiolkovsky's ideas, humanity will achieve greater success in space exploration.

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Published in the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" No. 0 of November 30 -0001

Newspaper headline: Semyon the cosmonauts landed in Samara