The Botanic Gardens Trust has announced its Australian native seeds that have spent six months on the International Space Station have landed back on earth on board the NASA STS-126 flight today. Botanic Gardens Trust Executive Director, Dr Tim Entwisle said the seeds were sent off the planet for an extended time for an experiment.

"Australian seeds are among the hardiest seeds on earth. Now we'll see if they are among the toughest in the universe," Dr Entwisle said.

"We'll compare the space-seeds with a 'control group' of identical seeds that we kept here on earth. To commemorate the occasion, we will also germinate and plant some of our space travellers in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, Mount Tomah Botanic Garden in the Blue Mountains and Mount Annan Botanic Garden near Camden. The Australian seeds were sent into space with Dr Gregory Chamitoff on his first NASA space flight. The official flight items in the kit were Golden Wattle, Waratah, Flannel Flower and Wollemi Pine. Botanic Gardens Trust, 01/12/08.