The Mahogany Seed Helicopter Project

Here's an eco-toy that doesn't need batteries at all, is completely organic and biodegradable, grows into a tree, and even has medicinal uses: 

Mahogany seed helicopters!

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On a late Thursday afternoon at the UP Lagoon, me and Edge hunt for mahogany seeds.  If you have no idea about your quarry--like me--you're in for a futile search since the seeds resemble brown dead leaves.  Hence they easily get lost among the detritus of the forest floor.  

Also, you have to be careful not to step on them or you'll break their rotor wings.  For every five seeds Edge finds, I stumble upon one single solitary mahogany seed.  He says I focus too much (true), so I end up not finding any (false).

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Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) seeds are efficient fliers.  Their structure enables them to spiral through the air as they fall, just like a helicopter.   They have to because they need to get as far away from their parent tree, or else they can't grow into a healthy plant from all that competition with the parent for sunlight, nutrients, etc.  (So metaphorical). 

Anyway, Edge tells me he was at the Lagoon back in college when he saw a curious spiraling "leaf", lazily making its way downwards.  That's how he found out about the mahogany seeds' stunt.

After two hours of back-breaking search for the elusive mahogany-copters, we find five or so, which we giddily throw in the air and watch as they spiral back down like a couple of fascinated kids.  Yipee!  The simple joys of life.

As we walk away to leave, we find this.

 

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We stare at it for a long time before realizing it's the foot of a mahogany tree.  And those dozens of brown things are no other than the mahogany seeds we've been looking for.  Presumably, they didn't disperse far enough.  (Too clingy to parent.)

We also find this: the mahogany pod itself, which is the Holy Grail to Edge.

You toss the entire pod as high as you can into the air (the pod's weight makes you attain great heights than if you just tossed light individual seeds).  And then you watch the mahogany seeds do their thing.


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There's another seed with a penchant for spiraling: the maple seed.  You can also do a Google search for the video of maple seed-inspired helicopters with the flick of a rubber band.

(Do we have maple trees here in the Philippines?  Please tell me if there are any.)