March 28th
It is now two weeks later, April 11th
Soon there will be thousands of whirligigs on the ground, and, yes, filling the gutters and downspouts. Spring is here in Indiana.
These are all names for those wonderfully spinning things that come off of some maple trees each spring or early summer. (The name samaras is the technical nomenclature for this.) Yes, they become the seeds of the trees. The aerodynamic design allows the seeds to spin as they fall, and they will travel over long distances from the tree.
“Whirligigs” on the tree getting ready to fly
Seed positioned ready to germinate
Hundreds of these spinners will come from each tree, and they will be responsible for many seedling trees as well as clogging gutters and downspouts. In addition, many like to consume the seeds. Try them, they are tasty!
In the front of Roadtirement’s “home base” in central Indiana we have a mulched strip on either side of the front door. Here’s a couple of images:
This is a new rose bush that we planted about a week ago. The first rose bud is showing some color. There are two more buds developing to the right of the big one.
There are lots of little mushrooms showing up in the mulch beds. The remnants of maple tree whirligig flying seeds are also in view, along with some unidentified green sprouts of some kind.
Roadtirement 