More on Seed Dispersal

     When I wrote the previous blog about seed dispersal, I forgot to mention kinds of trees in southeastern Pennsylvania that grow beautiful and intriguing seeds that blow away on the wind from the parent trees.  Those trees are a few kinds of maples, plus ashes, tulip trees and elms.
     Red, sugar and ash-leafed maple trees, for example, grow beige-colored, or red in the case of red maples, "veined"seeds that twirl in the wind away from the parent trees.  Hopefully those seeds will colonize new ground with maples. 
     Maple seeds grow in pairs and each seed has a fat part that houses the tree embryo and stored food to get the sprout started in life.  But each maple seed also has a long, thin section that is the seed's wing.  That single wing enables the seed to rotate in the wind like a helicopter blade, which carries the seed far before dropping to the ground where it might grow into a new tree, if not consumed by rodents.
     Maple seeds are often so numerous that they might pile up against objects.  These seeds have little chance of sprouting and growing in soil.
     Ash trees and tulip trees also grow beige seeds that have a thick part and a long, slender one, the wing.  Though these seeds are shaped differently than those on maples, they, too, swirl in the wind away and down to the ground where they might sprout if not eaten by rodents. 
     Elm seeds are rounded and fairly flat all over, but a little raised in the middle where the embryo and its food are.  Elm seeds have two tiny wings, one on each side of the thicker, middle part.  Elm seeds blow away lightly on the wind and often form great heaps against fallen logs and other objects on the ground.  Those piles of elm seeds could be places where invertebrates and small vertebrates can hide from critters that would eat them.  And warm-blooded, small mammals could also bury under blankets of elm seeds to stay warm. 
     Maple, ash, tulip tree and elm seeds are not only picturesque, but valuable to their parent plants, wildlife and the habitats they fall on.  They spread their species far and wide.  And they provide food and cover to a variety of wildlife, including certain kinds of birds, several types of mammals and hosts of invertebrates.  But if they don't sprout, or get ingested by wildlife, they will rot into the soil, enriching it.