Samara (fruit)

A samara is an achene, a type of dry winged botanical fruit.^[1] The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed farther away than regular seeds from the parent tree:^[2]

• The seed can be in the centre of the wing, like the elms and the hoptree.^[3][4]
• The seed can be on one side, with the wing extending to the other side, making the seed self rotate it falls.^[5]

1. ↑ botanical fruit = seed with covering tissue, but not a fruit in ordinary speech.
2. ↑ Fergus, Charles (2002). Trees of Pennsylvania and the Northeast. Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811720922.
3. ↑ Catalogues of Plants: no. 1. Arthur J.C; Coulter J.M. and Barnes C.R. 1881. Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Indiana.
4. ↑ Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. Douglas & Foulis. 1881.
5. ↑ Alexander, David E.; Vogel, Steven (2004). Nature's Flyers: Birds, Insects, and the Biomechanics of Flight. JHU Press. ISBN 9780801880599.