Samaras, seeds from a sycamore maple tree. Colloquially, they’re known as spinning jennies back home, but from what I gather, this is very localized. What do you call them?
Helicopters.
Helicopters - Wisconsin
Dittoes (in Cincinnati, DC, Atlanta and Tampa)
Never heard of “spinning Jennies”, but that would make a cool band name.
Helicopters.
Spinning Jennies sounds like a porn troupe. Or genset manufacturer.
Same here, helicopters, and grew up in Wisconsin.
They’ve always been helicopters in my experience. CRSP must have been raised in a posh part of England. 
helicopter seeds
Sycamore keys.
East of Scotland.
Helicopters (or just “spinny things”).
Pennsylvania.
Strangely I don’t really know of any colloquial term here in Ontario, Canada, of all places. Maple “key” perhaps?
In the case of Ash (Fraxinus spp), I call it a key. I think I refer to maple and sycamore seeds either as maple or sycamore seeds, or generically as ‘winged seeds’ or ‘helicopters’ depending on who I’m talking to in what context.
I’d never heard the term ‘samara’ before, but will use it now.
Awww, I have not seen them in a long time. We used to open the blunt end and lick it and stick them on our ears as earings and on our nose as kids. I don’t remember a name for them but they were fun.
Helicopters (North-east of Scotland)
I grew up here in coastal, rural New Zealand.
We had a sycamore tree right in the middle of our playground. I think we called them “helicopters”, but we were also aware that that was just our name for them for want of something else. So we may have called them “helicopter seeds”.
Wigan? No way! :eek:
We call it lönnäsa, maple nose in English.
Helicopters, or sometimes maple noses. You could sort of peel the seed end apart and stick it to your nose.
New England.
We did this too, also New England (specifically, NH).
My grandmother always called them “whirlybirds”.
Goddamn Helicopters Getting On My Deck, In My Gutters And Taking Seed In My Flowerbed!!
Or “helicopters” for short, northeast Ohio.