Nature's self-mimicry

I found this object on the stairs, by the back gate of medical center north where everyday, around noon, I step out and take a relatively clean air break. At first glance, I thought it was some insect's wing. But as I ventured closer, the pouch at the narrow end of the "wing" thing revealed itself as the house of a little seed. I looked and found a few more of that peculiarity lying around. As it turns out, this wing-like object was the fruit of a small decorative pine tree kept at the back gate of the building for the viewing pleasure of visitors and employees, and had nothing to do with the flying critters I suspected at first. The utility of such an appendage to spread the seeds and perpetuate the species became all of sudden clear.

So, lots of babble to make the obvious point that nature remains fascinating in its incredible diversity, its reproducible repetitive patterns and self-mimicry, and the definitive purpose of its most rudimentary and unnoticeable elements and forms.