It’s time to recognize the falling maple wings

By Ed Shannon, Between the Corn Rows

Published Friday, June 5, 2009

One of the overlooked sights this time of the year is based on watching maple wings slowly flutter down out of a tall tree onto a lawn, garden, flower bed or paved area.

This annual falling of those small winged seeds all over this region happens to be one of the most overlooked and ignored of all late spring or early summer phenomenons. Maybe it’s because the maple wings are harmless and don’t buzz, bite, cause tooth decay or increase cholesterol.

Why hasn’t anyone ever written a song about this annual occurrence? I can visualize a barber shop quartet or country-western star singing a sentimental ballad, “When the Maple Wings Fall Is When I’ll be Coming Back To You.” Maybe it’s time for some poet and/or composer to create this song.

Just for the heck of it, I Yahooed the words maple wings to see what evolved. Among the choices which popped up was a buffalo wings recipe from Maple Shade, N.J. Another recipe was maple chicken wings, and still another was for Canadian maple wings using chicken parts and a hot sauce. Hopefully, both regular or sugar free maple syrup can be used for these culinary treats..

Yet, do the real maple wings (the ones that gently flutter off the trees ) have any potential as a food source for any critter or bird? Despite all those maple wings lying around on the grass, ground and paved areas, I’m not seeing a wild feeding frenzy by anything that crawls, waddles, flies, runs or hops around. Somehow this alleged food source is being ignored.

I have two nicknames for maple trees. They could be called wing-droppers this time of year and leaf-droppers in the late fall.

Just for the heck of it, I made a quick survey to see if there were actually any maple trees on Albert Lea’s Maplehill Drive. This street has a very appropriate name for the trees, which includes several maples, but not for that mythical hill.

The source of all those wings has inspired the names of quite a few communities in our tri-state area. Just to the east of Hollandale on State Highway 251 is the rather interesting community of Maple Island. Then there’s Mapleview on the north end of Austin, which is actually a separate city with an estimated population of 172 people.

Other Minnesota localities with zip codes which honor these wing-producers are Maple Lake, Maple Plain, Mapleton, Maplewood and Maple Grove. Down in Iowa are towns named Maple Hill, Maple River Junction and another Mapleton. Over in Wisconsin is a place named Maple, plus another Maplewood.

Now, wouldn’t it be great if one of these communities or some other locality looking for a late spring or early summer event, could honor this annual falling of the maple wings as the basis of celebration. After all, a lot more has been done with celebration themes a lot less worthy.

Right at this point I decided to check with Yahoo to see if there was maybe a celebration somewhere in the nation or up in Canada saluting those falling maple wings. All I found was something called the Wing Ding at Loves Park near Rockford, Ill. This celebration has nothing to do with maple trees.

Yet, I can visualize a parade on some community’s main street, competition for the title of Miss Maple Wing, a multitude of costumes based on the wing concept, and maple candy and cookies (both regular and sugar free) on sale at the local stores.

There could even be earrings, lapel pins, and other types of jewelry created by local crafters. As a special event for sports enthusiasts, there could be a tournament based on lawn darts using larger versions of the maple wings.

Let’s face facts, folks, the possibilities for such a proposed event are almost endless.

To close off this column, here’s another aspect regarding the annual falling of the maple wings. Except for those airborne tree seeds that fall on pavements or sidewalks, all the others have the potential to become future maple trees.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.

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