Sugar maple faces imposter: the malicious invader is erroneously depicted on our $20 bills and in several official publications

Common maple leaf mistakenly replaces sugar maple leaf

A Canadian $20 bill shows a Norway maple leaf above poppies, which symbolize World War I. The Bank of Canada says it’s actually a “combination of several species of maples,” which doesn’t convince botanists.

The leaf of the sharpleaf maple, an invasive and disease-carrying species, is erroneously depicted on our $20 bills and in numerous official publications by politicians and maple growers instead of the leaf of the true sugar maple.

Dozens of publications misrepresent the leaf of the sugar maple as a symbol of Canada or the maple syrup industry, which is unacceptable according to two prominent botanists. This trap is fallen into by $20 bills and logos of maple syrup companies, which show a palmate leaf with more rounded shapes typical of the noxious species or even its very different fruit, maple syrup.

“I stopped counting them,” admitted Claude Lavoie, professor at Laval University and author of the book ‘ 50 Invasive Plants ’ with irritation which also includes the maple maple.

“the world’s cradle of maple technology”, is choosing the wrong maple. The photo shows the leaves of a tree that does not produce a drop of maple syrup!

Some commercial maple products have stylized maple leaves that look more like the leaves of an invasive alien species.

Along with his colleague Jacques Brisson of the University of Montreal, he has long held an informal competition on maple leaf misuse. One photo shows a poster from Belshehass County, which prides itself on being “the world’s cradle of maple technology,” showing a flock of Norway maple leaves. However, this species does not produce a drop of maple syrup.

Science gap

“It’s a mistake that demonstrates a real gap in the scientific culture at the higher echelons of our institutions,” says Jacques Brisson, who taught botany at the University of Montreal for 30 years.

The leaf to represent Canada at COP15 in Montreal is an invasive alien species: one of the topics the international meeting wanted to address.

In his forest ecology course, he presents an anthology of cases of maple leaf misuse that formed the basis of Canada’s flag, the maple leaf. To him, this is like “depicting a giraffe instead of a beaver as a Canadian symbol.”

He wasn’t offended by the graphic error in gift stores (“better to laugh at it”), but he was shocked to see it in the official edition of COP 15 in 2022 in Montreal. One of the themes of this historic meeting: fighting invasive exotic species. Next to the smiling face of Minister Stephen Guilbeau is a leaf of a harmful species.

The botanist has written to the responsible ministry but is still waiting for a response. He had more success with the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada, which quietly changed its logo after receiving his email.

The Alliance of Natural History Museums was flaunting a leaf of a sharp-leaf maple (above) until it received an email from botanist Jacques Brisson.

The Canadian Television Foundation presents two sharpleaf maples as the Canadian symbol. The sugar maple has shield-shaped shoots that are U-shaped and not opposite each other.

Party in the Field

The People’s Party of Canada, founded by Maxime Bernier, displays the wrong maple, which looks awkward for a politician who hails from the maple region. Thenewspaper raised the issue during the last election, but did not request a logo revision.

The logo of the People’s Party of Canada.

Although it is now strongly discouraged in Montreal and several North American cities, the planting of sharp-leaf maples has long been welcomed. “This tree grows fast and is resistant to pollution and the stresses of urban life. That’s why it was actively planted in the 1950s,” Mr. Brisson recalls.

Laurier University in Ontario uses an image of the Norway maple leaf in all of its official publications.

The sharpleaf maple is resistant to pollution. It even survived the radiation at Chernobyl. But a fungus is attacking its leaves and causing increasing damage. Photo by the Federation of Forest Producers

Unfortunately, these abilities have made it a champion of urban forests – at Mount Royal at the turn of the 2000s, there were three trunks of this species per native stem in the undergrowth – and a fungus that attacks its leaves has emerged, and its numbers are growing every year.