10 Types of Trees with Helicopter Seeds

Helicopter seeds might sound a bit strange to you, Meanwhile helicopter seed is also known as Samara fruit, these are seeds that rotate or spins as they go down from a tree.

These seeds are light, and due to the spinning movement, the wind takes them away, making them travel farther from the parent tree relative to them being dropped on the ground. This makes them dominate in other places. The wind mostly blows the helicopter seeds that mature.

The adaptation of helicopter seeds has made them exposed to being eaten by birds prior to them getting on the ground. The major season for the growth of these seeds is early summer and late spring.

plants and trees adopt the wind system of seed dispersal to minimize the rate of competition for water, nutrients, and light on the parent tree.

In this article, we are looking at the type of trees with helicopter seeds

Table of Contents

Types of Trees with Helicopter Seeds

Ashes, elm, and maples which are shrub species are said to be the most common trees with helicopter seeds. Let’s discuss further the trees with helicopter seeds

1. Norway Maple (Acer Platanoides)

Norway maple is one of the trees with helicopter seed, Norway is also known as harlequin maple ( Acer plantanoides). The endemic of Norway maple is Europe and is a substantial maple species, it is an unwanted plant that was initiated around the 1700s in the united state and has spread rapidly across the globe through the seed.

This tree produces plenty of seeds and grows enormously, making it an unwanted plant and popular because it is an unwanted plant. Seeds produced by this tree travel far and starts dominating.

Norway maple tree produces helicopter seeds that have big paper-like wings that are being blown by the wind and make them travel far and then spread abroad than other similar helicopter seeds. This is what made Norway maple to be unwanted which you especially discomfort when one is growing in your surroundings.

Norway maple looks like the natural sugar maple tree as it spreads faster, resists shade, and is more unwanted. Norway maple has a thick shade that holds light from maple and is about 60 – 100 feet tall.

2. Red Maple (Acer Rubrum)

The red maple tree also called swamp maple, soft maple, or water maple is one of the trees with helicopter seed, and is also preferable for every garden.

Its origin is from the eastern and central north parts of America, it often grows to a height of around 30 m (100 ft) and a width of 50 feet at maturity while at sea level it grows very well to almost 900 m (3,000 ft).

Red maple is flexible to a very vast scope of the status of the site, compare to any other tree that is in eastern North America. It mostly grows in swamps, on poor, dry soils, and practically everywhere in between. The tree has a round or ovalish crown.

Due to the fact that it is a deciduous tree during winter, it loses its leaves and is very attractive as a street tree that provides shade for landscapes.

Red maple produces reddish helicopter seeds like other maple trees that have greenish helicopter seeds. Its growth is some else in well-drained soil and in regions with more sunshine, it grows very well.

It is used on a small scale for the production of maple syrup commercially for both medium and high lumber quality. In Rhode Island, it serves as the state tree.

In a highly disturbed young forest mainly a regular logged forest red maple can be seen to be unwanted and weedy. Meanwhile in the northern hardwood forest that is mature red maple presence is scanty.

3. Japanese Maple (Acer Pamatum)

Japanese maple is also known as smooth Japanese maple or palmate maple, it is one of the trees with helicopter seeds and it originated from China, Japan, Korea eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia. it is one of the species of a woody plant.

Japanese maple grows in different forms dependent on the germinated seed and there are several types of Japanese maple trees. You can see a particular color of Japanese maple trees, like red or green, having different leaf colors such as purple, red, or even orange leaves. like other maples, it grows in height at 15 to 25 feet, and wide, it is very short.

Varieties of cultivars of Japanese maple have been picked which are spread all over the globe due to their appealing forms, amazing colors, and leaf shape.

They are gorgeous landscaping trees that make every garden they are to be colorful. They produce many helicopter seeds that are dispersed by wind to far places.

4. Silver Maple (Acer Saccharinum)

Another name for Silver maple is creek maple or white maple, this is a species of the maple it originated in the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canada. In the United States, it is the most popular tree.

The silver maple tree is a garden plant or tree that grows very fast and it is known for its nice sap. The tree leaves have silvery on their soles, that was how the name came about.

The height is about 50 to 80 feet which grows well in wet areas and they are drought resistant. The tree has a propensity to color and drops its leaves slightly earlier in the fall than other maples

5. Green Ash (Fraxinus Pennsylvanica)

This is also known as red ash made it to the list of trees with helicopter seeds and it is a species of ash that originated from eastern and central North America it spread to the western United States and Europe to countries such as Spain and Russia

Its growth in height is about 70 feet and 50 feet wide. It grows much faster in urban areas that have wet loam soil and sun. The color of the flowers is purple while the color of the leave is grayish-brown bark green. it produces thousands of helicopter seeds every season. They can travel far because they are light. If they fall into suitable or fertile ground, germinate and grow into saplings faster.

These trees are usually harmed by Emerald Ash borers as they invade them and cause these trees to wither and die.

6. Velvet Ash (Fraxinus Velutina)

Velvet ash has other names which are Modesto ash or Arizona ash is a species of Fraxinus (ash) Its root is in Southwestern North America, in the United State. it is among the trees with helicopter seeds. it grows at about 50 feet tall and 60 feet wide. the flower is green in color and it grows very fast on well-drained soil and sunlight.

7. Winged Elm (Ulmus Alata)

Winged elm is also know as wahoo, also made it to this list of trees with helicopter seeds. The Winged elm is not that big like other trees, its size is small to medium, and s a deciduous tree native to the woodlands of the southeastern and south-central parts of the United States.

The species is unprejudiced by a large assortment of soils, and ponding, it happens to be the minimal shade-tolerant elms of North America.

The rate at which it grows is usually slow not fast like others, the stem grows per year in diameter by less than 5 mm. It usually produces flat and hairy helicopter seeds and it has leaves that are green and they are choppy on both sides. During winter it produces a small group of red flowers.

8. Tipu Tree (Tipuana)

The Tipu tree also called tipa is one of the trees with helicopter seeds. It has a stem that is high which grows in height at about 50 feet and produces a canopy that is appealing and higher than other trees. The colors it produces that are spotted on the flowers of the canopy are orange and yellow.

It has a high trunk that grows up to 50 feet in height. It also produces an attractive canopy that rises above other trees. In season, it produces yellow and orange flowers that can be spotted on its canopy. The flowers then modify to the tipu fruit and the fruit which is a very big brown helicopter seed.

This tree grows faster in different places, especially where the soils are acidic and loam in nature with high sunlight. it is originated in Bolivia in South America, it is also the pride and rosewood of Bolivia.

Due to the color of the flower that is bright and its canopy being high is often used as a landscaping tree.

9. Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus Altissima)

Tree of Heaven which is also known as the varnish tree, or as Chouchun in Chinese is also one of the trees with helicopter seeds that are native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. It is a dangerous weed and an invasive tree in Pennsylvania precisely perhaps in other parts of the United State. It is usually in a temperate climate where is found rather than tropics.

The tree grows very fast and within 25 years has the ability to get a height of 49 feet. It hardly lives more than 50 years, meanwhile, some specimens surpass 100 years of age. Its flower is greenish in color, exposed to full sun, and tolerates poor soil.

10. Tulip tree (Liriodendron)

The name was derived from its flowers that look like tulips. It is one of the trees with helicopter seeds in conical fruits. Its leaves are greenish also in color but during summer they change to yellow while the flowers are orange and the leaves are 4 to 8 inches respectively which makes it attractive to use for landscaping.

Conclusion

Helicopter seed is an interesting illustration of organic resourcefulness. These seeds take good advantage of the wind to spread across the globe, due to the fact that with the help of the wind they travel far away from their parent tree. This is one of the best methods of seed dispersal. In this article, you will properly understand these beautiful trees and their seeds.