Samara (fruit)

A samara is an achene, a type of dry winged botanical fruit.botanical fruit = seed with covering tissue, but not a fruit in ordinary speech. The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed farther away than regular seeds from the parent tree:

 The seed can be in the centre of the wing, like the elms and the hoptree.
 The seed can be on one side, with the wing extending to the other side, making the seed self rotate it falls.

References

Further reading

Ralph Lorenz 2006. Spinning flight: dynamics of frisbees, boomerangs, samaras and skipping stones, ,  Copernicus New York. 

Category:Fruits
Category:Plant anatomy