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Gyrocarpus americanus is a slender, deciduous tree with smooth, grey bark. The tree grows to about 12 m in height. The leaves are spirally arranged, crowded near the ends of the branches, and grow up to 150 × 120 mm in size. They are ovate, often 3-lobed, dark green above, paler and greyer below, with velvety surfaces, 3-veined from the base ...
The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed further away from the tree than regular seeds would go, [3] and is thus a form of anemochory. In some cases the seed is in the centre of the wing, as in the elms (genus Ulmus ), the hoptree ( Ptelea trifoliata ), and the bushwillows (genus Combretum ).
Like all Leucadendrons, this tree is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The fruit is a heavy woody cone, containing numerous seeds ; each seed is a small nut with a silky-haired helicopter-like parachute, enabling it to disperse by wind.
The male cones are slender conic, 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in) long and 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) broad and reddish-brown in colour and are lower on the tree than the seed cones. [3] Seedlings appear to be slow-growing [ 3 ] and mature trees are extremely long-lived; some of the older individuals today are estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 ...
The tree produces spiky green fruits about the size of a golf ball, which turn brown and drop off the tree over an extended period beginning in fall and continuing over the winter.
The fruit is a pair of samaras (winged seeds). The seeds are globose, 7–10 mm (9 ⁄ 32 – 13 ⁄ 32 in) in diameter, the wing 2–3 cm (3 ⁄ 4 – 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) long. The seeds fall from the tree in autumn, where they must be exposed to 45 days of temperatures below 4 °C (39 °F) to break their coating down.
The capsules explode when ripe, splitting into segments and launching seeds at 70 m/s (250 km/h; 160 mph). [5] One source states that ripe capsules catapult their seeds as far as 100 m (330 ft). [9] [verification needed] Another source states that seeds are thrown as far as 45 m (150 ft) from a tree, with a mode of about 30 m (100 ft). [10]
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