Single-Winged Seeds Fall More Slowly because They Whirl (VIDEO)

University of California - Berkeley

Caption

High-speed video of hand-made models of winged seeds, showing how a single-winged seed (left) autorotates like a helicopter, which slows its descent, while double-winged seeds do not. The longer a seed remains airborne, the greater the chance of wind dispersal to a promising spot to germinate.

Credit

Video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Phil Ebiner; footage by Robert Stevenson, Dennis Evangelista and Cindy Looy

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