Maple Samaras Flying
/The maples in our neighborhood have released their samaras. They whirl away from the tree with each gust of wind and land in the yards or collect in drifts at the curbs. It is almost like the fall of the year with the amount of stuff on the street. When it rains there are enough of them to clog gutters.
The samaras that land in the yards will have only a slightly longer life. Many will sprout and grow their first leaves only to be mowed again and again until they give up. They won’t become trees.
What would it be like if we didn’t mow for a season? Would a little forest of maples trees spring up in all the yards? The oaks have big and small years for their acorns but the maples always produce a huge number of samaras and they seem to sprout quite easily. The samara can whirl around to get itself well away from the parent tree.
Before
AfterThe maple that I see from my office window is looking considerably greener with its samaras going and gone. The tree always starts the spring looking reddish…then rust…then a golden brown. The change from golden brown to green happened over a couple of days this year. I kept thinking it would happen earlier because of the samara color and the stiffness of the breezes. But they weren’t quite ready. Now all the maples in the neighborhood are letting their samaras fly.
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