ELM AND MAPLE SEED BEAUTIES

      Native to northeastern North America, the interesting and attractive winged seeds of American elm trees and red maple trees have beauties, and characteristics in common.  Both kinds of seeds develop from fertilized flowers that bloom early in April.  By mid-May, both have thin, papery "wings" that allow them to float and spin in the wind to the ground, often in sunny places, far from their parent trees, where their seedlings can get a good start in life.  American elm trees and red maple trees are adapted to moist soil in bottomlands, but have also been commonly planted on lawns for their shapes and shade.  And it's on lawns that the beauties of their winged seeds, called samaras" are most appreciated.

     American elm seeds are numerous on large trees.  Each seed is small and flat.  And each one is beige, slightly oblong and has a narrow wing completely around the slight bulge of its embryo in its center.  

     Masses of elm seeds float down on the wind like light-brown snow.  On the ground, millions of wafer-like elm seeds swirl high and low in the wind, and act like drifting snow.  Eventually, the innumerable, wind-blown elm seeds pile up in soft, fluffy heaps against trees, boulders and buildings.  However, some elm seeds, scattered across moist bottomlands and lawns, might sprout by early June.  And many elm seeds are food for mice and a variety of attractive, seed-eating birds, when few other seeds are available.  

     Red maple seeds are red, and attractive.  They are double-seeded, meaning two seeds are attached at the thicker, embryo part of each seed, while the thin, veined wing of each sticks out behind.  Around mid-May, innumerable red maple seeds detach from their twig moorings and twirl, like helicopter blades, in the wind away from the trees, and, eventually, down to the ground, where some of them sprout by early June.  

     Red maple seed wings are shaped to spin on the wind.  Each wing is wider at its end than where it emerges from the thicker seed.  That difference in width makes each wing spin its embryo cargo away, hopefully to sunny, moist ground where the seed might spout and grow, if it is not ingested by squirrels and other kinds of rodents, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and other kinds of creatures, again when few other kinds of seeds are available.     

     The innumerable winged seeds of American elms and red maples are an intriguing part of nature to some people, and major sources of food for certain types of critters in spring.  Both kinds of trees inhabit damp ground and produce attractive seeds, annually, in tremendous numbers.  And, above all, these seeds are fun to watch swirling down and piling up like light-brown snow in May.     

               

             

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