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samara

 
Dictionary: sam·a·ra   (săm'ər-ə, sə-mâr'ə, -mär'ə) pronunciation
samara
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samara

slippery elm fruit
silver maple fruit
(Elizabeth Morales)
n.
A dry, indehiscent, winged, often one-seeded fruit, as of the ash, elm, or maple. Also called key fruit.

[Latin, elm seed.]


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A dry winged seed, either single, like that of the elm, or double, like that of the maple. Also called key.

samara

WordNet: samara
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a winged often one-seed indehiscent fruit as of the ash or elm or maple
  Synonym: key fruit


Wikipedia: Samara (fruit)
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Maple fruits: keys
Triple Sycamore Samara

A samara is a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent (not opening along a seam). They are winged achenes. The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed farther away from the parent tree:

  • The seed can be in the centre of the wing, as in the elms (genus Ulmus) and the hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata).
  • The seed can be on one side, with the wing extending to the other side, making the seed autorotate as it falls, as in the maples (genus Acer) and ashes (genus Fraxinus).

A samara is sometimes called a key and is often referred to as a whirlybird, helicopter, whirligig or polynose.

Some species that normally produce double samaras, such as Acer pseudoplatanus, can also produce a few multi-lobed samaras with 3 or 4 seeds.

Further reading

  • Spinning Flight : Dynamics of Frisbees, Boomerangs, Samaras and Skipping Stones, Ralph Lorenz, Copernicus New York, September 2006 ISBN 0-387-30779-6

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Samara (fruit)" Read more

 

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