Maple Seeds Photo by Robert Muller

Recently a friend remarked, “There are not many spinners this year.” I was puzzled until I realized my friend was talking about maple seeds. When I was a kid we called them propellers or helicopters. I took an informal Facebook poll asking what people called them and they added “Whirligigs” or “Whirligiggers” and appropriately “pain in the butt”.  Technically, it is a samara that is defined as “a winged fruit that does not split open.” Elms, Maples, and Ashes have samaras.

Michigan has six native species of Maples (seven if you recognize Black Maple as distinct from Sugar Maple). The non-native Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is a too common escaped species.

Silver Maple

Silver Maples (A.sarrharinum) and Red Maples (A. rubrum) have the best spinners. Silver Maple samaras are 3-6cm (1 ¼ to 2 ½ inch) long and the pair forms a widely diverging angle although often only one seed fully develops.

Red Maple

Red Maple samaras are smaller 1-2.5cm (1/2 to 1 inch) long and the pair is more V-shaped. Often they are reddish. Sugar Maple (A. saccharum) pairs are U-shaped with the samara almost parallel to each other.

Boxelder L- dried seeds in winter R-fresh seeds

Boxelder (A. negundo) has V-shaped pairs and will sometimes hang on the tree all winter. Norway Maples have samara pairs widely spaced so the pairs are almost straight across.

Striped Maple or Moosewood

Mountain Maple (A. spicatum) and Striped Maple also called Moosewood (A. pensylvanicum) have seeds in branched clusters called racemes. Mountain Maple has seeds approximately 1cm (3/8 inch) long. In Striped Maple the seeds are 2cm (3/4 inch) long. I seldom need to identify maples solely from their seeds. All of these species have other useful characteristics to help determine their identity.

Thanks to Robert Muller for the use of his photo showing the seed of the four species.
Copyright 2015 by Donald Drife

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