These papery-winged seeds can make for good toys and snacks.
A samara is a pop in of dry fruit, not a fleshy fruit like an apple or cherry.
One familiar bang out of samara is the double-winged one found onmaple trees(Acer spp.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
).Ash trees(Fraxinus spp.)
produce a samara that features a single elongated wing.Elm trees(Ulmus spp.)
produce samaras where the seed is located in the middle of a papery circle.
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Here are trees and shrubs that produce helicopter seeds.
Spreading 30 to 50 feet wide, it grows 40 to 70 feet tall with a rounded-to-oval crown.
Red maples are chosen for their stunning bright red, or sometimes orange or yellow, fall foliage.
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Leaves appear dark green above and gray-green below.
Samara fruits emerge in a reddish color, each producing a two-winged helicopter seed.
Clusters of greenish-yellow to red flowers bloom in early spring.
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Their winged seed pairs appear prolifically and will quickly drop and sprout in any open soil.
This non-native is an invasive species, easily spreading by seed into native woodlands.
May-blooming flowers appear as flat-topped upright, yellowish-green clusters with green leaves.
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Green foliage turns to yellow in the fall.
Warning
Norway Maple is an invasive species that poses a threat to other maples.
Depending on the variety, they may come in green or red.
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Leaves in autumn turn to brilliant red, orange, yellow, or purple.
Some varieties have wide lobes while others are more finely dissected and look lacy.
Japanese maple flowers are small, in red or purple, giving way to half-inch-long samara fruit.
Mature seeds producing samarasweisschr / iStock / Getty Images Plus
The average size of this tree is 15 to 25 feet tall and wide.
The shape is usually round while some varieties offer a weeping shape.
The tree is relatively small, growing to a humble height of 40 to 60 feet.
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The bark is red-brown to ash-gray (the latter pictured above).
Doubly-toothed leaves are small and oval, of a dark green color with paler hairy undersides.
They turn yellow in the fall and produce small red flower clusters in late winter.
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Samaras are flattened with hairy margins.
Dense and rounded, it grows well as aflowering hedge.
Dark green leaves are shiny and two to five inches long, turning to greenish yellow in fall.
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Fragrant flowers bloom in late spring as tiny, greenish white clusters.
From late summer through a lot of winter, seeds mature and produce samaras.
Its young bark is smooth and brown-green, turning light brown to gray.
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One leaf measures 1 to 4 feet and can include anywhere from 10 to 40 leaflets.
While there are separate male and female trees, some perfect flowers exist, blooming in early summer.
When crushed, the leaves and all plant parts give off what is known to be an unpleasant odor.
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Female trees produce seeds called “twisted samaras” in clusters that ripen to reddish-brown in September or October.
These 1 to 2-inch-long samaras can hang on the tree through winter.
Leaves are bright green, turning golden yellow in autumn.
While leaves are 4 to 8 inches long and wide, flowers come 2 to 3 inches long.
Petals are yellow-green on flowers with orange centers, blooming from May to June.
Every year, fruits appear in the form of conical clusters of samaras.
The tree has one trunk and creates a high-spreading canopy.
In ideal conditions, it matures about 50 feet tall and wide.
Gray-brown bark forms a diamond-like pattern.
Medium-green leaves, each including five to nine leaflets, turn to shades of yellow in autumn.
These female trees are able to self-seed quite freely.
Keep an eye out for Emerald Ash borers, which threaten ash trees.
It reaches up to 50 feet tall and 60 feet wide.
Springtime flowers are green and not showy, producing showy samara fruit.
Three- to six-inch-long leaves are divided into multiple leaflets.
In fall, foliage turns a brilliant yellow.
Whether helicopter seeds are safe to eat will depend on the tree.
For example, maple helicopter seeds are edible but sycamore helicopter seeds are poisonous.
Helicopter seeds are beneficial for many reasons.
