Maple samara flight is robust to morphological perturbation and united by a classic drag model.

ABSTRACT: Winged, autorotating seeds from the genus Acer, have been the subject of study for botanists and aerodynamicists for decades. Despite this attention and the relative simplicity of these winged seeds, there are still considerable gaps in our understanding of how samara dynamics are informed by morphological features. Additionally, questions remain regarding the robustness of their dynamics to morphological alterations such as mass change by moisture or area change by damage. We here challenge the conventional approach of using wing-loading correlations and instead demonstrate the superiority of a classical aerodynamic model. Using allometry, we determine why some species deviate from interspecific aerodynamic behavior. We alter samara mass and wing area and measure corresponding changes to

SUBMITTER: Schaeffer BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10907639 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature