Figure 1 – Maple helicopters on a field of mulch, Salem, MA, May 2020. (c) DEWolf 2020.

“When April winds Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush; Of scarlet flowers. The tulip tree, high up, Opened in airs of June her multitude; Of golden chalices to humming-birds; And silken-wing’d insects of the sky.”

William Cullen Bryant

Well, it is almost June and the season of chartreuse is just about over, The maples flowered for a very long time this year, timid against the viral threat perhaps. Now they have gone to seed, producing thousands of little green maple helicopters. These so delight all children and the children in all of us. I took Figure 1 the other morning. There was just the right confluence of maple and mulch to produce a mini-field of these delicate fliers.