avatar

Hsin-Hao Yu's Personal Blog

10 Nov 2017

Micro: Elm

Have I neglected the backyard garden this much in the last few weeks? This morning when I opened the backdoor, I was surprised to see the grounds covered by mysterious coin-shaped objects. They were clearly seeds — seeds wearing papery, gossamer skirts. Sure, I have seen them before, but not so many all at once. They parachuted from my neighbor’s golden elm tree - an elm native to northern America. These seeds grow in densely-packed clusters. When the wind blows, some of them break free from the cluster, and tumble down to the ground in complicated spiral trajectories, rolling and whirling as they glide in the air.