Tiny, Red Helicopters!

  Down behind the canebrake, there is a good stand of red maple trees.  Usually, these trees are still dormant during February and do not set their samaras until late March.  Our very short winter (which lasted a whopping four weeks or so) and the sudden onset of warm (almost hot!) weather has made most of the trees start to bloom and even set fruit.  The maples have the woods ablaze with their bright red samaras making the hikes back to that part of the property even more enjoyable.  

  Samaras are actually the seeds of the maple tree.  These are sometimes erroneously identified as flowers which is easily understood when viewed from a distance.  The paper thin, winglike structures have a hard seed at one end and are usually in pairs.  These wings and being paired allow the seeds to act like little helicopters when a good stiff wind knocks them from the tree.  The seeds are airborne for a quite a distance before sinking to the ground.  Their flight takes them far from the parent tree. This spacing lets the trees grow large and strong.

  Red maples are somewhat invasive as they make thousands and thousands of seeds each year.  Not too many critters eat the seeds like they do acorns and pine nuts.  The sheer number of seeds that germinate coupled with the trees' ability to grow in any soil type lets them soon take over a forest.  Here, there are many maples far up on the hill where the soil is dry and just as many down in the watery creek bed.  The trees have no preference where they take root.  Some even survive in the salty marshes.  

  My afternoon hike surprised me with the maple samaras but the threat of stormy weather tonight may see the trees stripped of their glory by morning.  The high winds and torrential rains will most likely have tiny, red helicopters flying all over the hillside!

And Poof! It Was Gone!

  I have been doing a lot of clearing of new pathways for the past few days.  After checking the area for any critters or nests, I push the battered up lawnmower to extreme measures.  Although the thing is barely a year old, I must say that it has seen better days.  While most folks use their mowers strictly to cut grass, I push mine up under brush to cut small trees, underbrush and huge clumps of palmettos.  If I am going to go to all the trouble of cranking that thing, I am going to push it until it hurts....and it usually does.  The poor thing has had bent blades, lost gas tanks and a broken frame.  Son repairs it enough for me to start again and I am off in a whirl!  

  All of this cutting has led me to find some pretty interesting things. Just yesterday, I pushed through a bit of brush to find a small clearing that was filled with white fluff.  While I am still not sure just what the original bloom looked like, the seeds resembled a mass of soft white feathers. My first thought was that the Cooper's hawk had made another kill.  Closer inspection led to at least a much kinder identification.  Seeds are happier than dead bird parts.  I decided to leave my "feather field" for a bit so I could show Mark on our next walk.  (Hubby knows that I have a warped sense of what is beautiful!)  I took one quick closeup photograph and set to work cutting once again. 

  By the time Mark and I took our late afternoon hike about the hillside, my "feather field" was no where to be seen.  Gone! Kaput!  Vanished! Obviously, a stiff breeze took the fluffy seeds elsewhere!  This....this may be something that I regret at a later date as I know seeds make plants, plants grow tall and I shall have to mow....again.  And to top it all.....I was never able to positively identify said plant!  Knowing my luck, this is one of those highly invasive species of plants that will soon cover the hillside and marshes with white fluffy seeds!  Uh, oh....