Space seeds flourishing on the ground

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 ◆ Space seeds flourishing on the ground

Herbs grown from over 30 kinds of seeds that have been sent into space are flourishing in the city of An'guo, in North China's Hebei Province.

Chen Miaozeng, who looks after plants at the Kewei Space Plant Propagation Base in An'guo, said the plants grown from seeds that have been in orbit have demonstrated obvious ecological advantages over ordinary plants.

The space plants have larger leaves and stronger stems and are more resistant to insect pests, he said.

Kewei workers in recent years have put over 30 kinds of seeds from herbs into two unmanned spacecraft that were launched into orbit and successfully returned to the earth, one of them being the China-made "Shenzhou III" spacecraft, launched on March 25 this year.

The 24 species of herb seeds carried in "Shenzhou III" experienced such environmental changes as zero gravity and reduced atmospheric pressure.