Data on samara morphology and wind dispersal in the invasive tree Ailanthus altissima

Abstract

The data presented in this paper is supporting the research article “Estimating wind dispersal potential in Ailanthus altissima: The need to consider the three-dimensional structure of samaras” [1]. We analyzed the estimation of samara's wind dispersal potential through a group of morphological variables that succeed in describing the three-dimensional nature of samaras. We present here a dataset containing 8 morphological variables of 200 samaras belonging to 5 different individuals of the invasive tree Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle. Additionally, we present the average descent velocity of each of the samaras, which was recorded by releasing 5 times each samara under controlled and reproducible conditions. The data set is structured in a single spreadsheet where we also included the samara and the individual identity code of the tree.