  Maple trees (genus $\textit{Acer}$) accomplish the task of distributing
objects to a wide area by producing seeds which are carried by the wind as they
slowly descend to the ground, known as samaras. With the goal of supporting
engineering applications, such as gathering environmental data over a broad
area, we developed 3D-printed artificial samaras. Here, we compare the behavior
of both natural and artificial samaras in both still-air laboratory experiments
and wind dispersal experiments in the field. We show that the artificial
samaras are able to replicate (within 1 standard deviation) the behavior of
natural samaras in a lab setting. We further introduce the notion of windage to
compare dispersal behavior, and show that the natural samara has the highest
mean windage, corresponding to the longest flights during both high wind and
low wind experimental trials. This research provides a bioinspired design for
the dispersed deployment of sensors and provides a better understanding of
wind-dispersal of both natural and artificial samaras.
