(no subject)

[madbaker]

Something about walking during lunch today triggered a childhood memory.
I remember these things we thought were leaves. They were probably seed pods or something similar, though. They were vaguely feather-shaped, and what made them cool was their structure: if you dropped them, they would rotate to where they were perpendicular to the ground, and they would start rotating like a helicopter rotor.

They were pretty common in the Bay Area in the '70s. Anyone remember these? Know what species I'm talking about?

Comments

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Aren't they the seed pods from Maple Trees?

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

maple trees drop something that spins like that, but they have two wings on them, like a pair of bunny ears?

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Back east, we had Sugar Maples with seeds that look like this:

http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/a/wacsa3-fr22184.jpg

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

By St. George, I think he's got it!

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Digging a little deeper, it turns out that Sugar Maples are an East Coast & Canada thing (hence the device on the Canadian Flag).

I'm not sure what kind of Maples are native to this area.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Yeah! That's what I was thinking of.

[ptigris.livejournal.com]

If they only have one blade, it might be an ash tree pod. I grew up South Bay and they were everywhere.

Link here:

http://www.mucc.org/images/clip_image002_009.jpg

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

We had two giant ash trees in our front yard. I think it was a maple pod.

[naadhira.livejournal.com]

Could be one of two things: maple keys (seeds), which can be single or double, and are common to most varieties of maple. (the native species is the Big Leaf Maple, but maples are hugely popular landscape trees, so if you live in the city or 'burbs, you literally get all kinds.)

OR... it could be a ponderosa pine seed. Where I grew up (Santa Cruz Mtns in the sandhills), maples didn't like the sand, but the pines LOVED it. Every fall, the pinecones would start spitting out winged seeds that look like small, dry maple keys.

Just a contribution from your armchair botanist... :)

[aastg.livejournal.com]

I think naadhira is right - maple trees don't generally do well in the Bay Area, but Ponderosa pines do, and they're extremely common here.