Dawn Phelps
Columnist
A few weeks ago, I was amazed at the number of maple seeds furiously flying around outside as they left their host maple tree in our backyard. Some were hitting our back window with a splatting sound. Some were swirling like little helicopters, and some were propelled through the air before landing on our patio and in our flowerbed.
Recently, Tom and I were pulling grass from our flowerbed when we noticed a multitude of maple seeds that are still on our concrete patio. They are no longer in pristine condition as they were a few months ago, and many have a worn appearance.
When I read Judy Lobaugh’s May 8 Tootle’s Tales column for another newspaper, I became aware that she and her husband Mark had a lot of maple seeds at their house too.
Here are Judy’s words: “The maple tree in our backyard produced a tremendous amount of winged seeds this year. The strong winds had blown the seeds into large piles in front of a row of bushes by the driveway. The piles were large enough that we had to use a shovel to scoop them up and dispose of them. I had never seen this many seeds produced by this tree at any other time.”
When my siblings and I were kids, we called maple seeds whirligigs. The technical name for the seeds is samara, so named because they are designed to travel long distances from the parent tree. They are good at flying and may also be called maple ’copters, helicopters, maple keys, whirlers, whirlybirds, or twisters.
Several years ago, soon after my daughter Misty and family moved to Wales, Tom and I went there to visit them. I was both surprised and pleased to see whirligigs on the ground and sidewalks. Wales, like the U.S., has maple trees too!
But back to my whirligig story. The seeds continued to fall for several days, and now our flower garden is covered with tiny maple trees every few inches! But they cannot stay—we have no space for new trees!
Tom and I talked about how many seeds fell a few weeks ago. We wondered, “Why this spring?” So, I did some reading and found that maple trees will produce more seeds if they feel stressed.
And if you think about it, looking back a few weeks, we had a very long winter, and snow and ice were on the ground for several weeks before the thaw began. Our furnace had run constantly, yet it could not keep up with the cold weather outside.
So, I am wondering if the extremely cold weather was the stressor for the maple trees. One source said that when the trees produce more seeds than normal, they try to survive and propagate themselves.
In fact, scientists have studied how maple seeds are made and what makes them spin in the air like helicopters. They found that there is a low pressure above the seeds and a high pressure below which contributes to the uplift of the seeds in the air.
They are “self-planting” since they can be carried in the air up to a mile due to their special design. When they land, the seeds patiently wait for a person, an animal, or moisture to help push them into the ground, thus planting them.
Turkeys, finches, squirrels, and chipmunks will eat the seeds. The seeds can also be eaten by people, but the outside covering needs to be removed first. They can also be roasted.
Perhaps you played with whirligigs when you were a kid, but you may have called them helicopters since they seem to “fly” in the air like helicopters. Not only are maple seeds “toys” for kids. They are scientific wonders!
When God made maple tree seeds, He made a versatile thing. They provide entertainment, grow into beautiful trees, and can provide food for animals or people. And if you have a maple tree in your yard, you may see more tiny trees sprouting in your yard, those determined little whirligigs.
