A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Sugar Maple Seed Question

This year 2 of our large sugar maples are producing large "tassles" with seeds under them. Our others have not. We took a walk around the neighborhood and the other sugar maples are doing the same. They have never done so before? Does anyone know what causes this? Mild winter?
They sure make a mess. Not as bad as the "helicopter" seeds that the silver maples make EVERY year from the neighbors yard.
Greg

got a pic of this 'tassle' ?

No i don't....looks like its all seeds..Sure are alot of them this year.

Those tassels are the actual flowers. Some years they are more pronounced then others.

I have the same thing here,
the only thing I can think of is
that it's been soooooooo hot and dry,
very early in the spring time when it's
normally cooler, moister and slower to get
such hot temps, that it stressed the trees out,
and stressing a plant causes it to think it's
dying or going to and they need to produce seeds
to sustain the species...