But have you ever looked at some of our most well-known symbols and wondered what species of maples they are? The foliage floating around on our folding money is easily identifiable as a non-native Norway maple acer platanoides —a tree with a reputation for being an oafish thug and highly invasive weed that is doing its best to knock off our native forest plants.
Of course, when botanists first spotted this alien invading our currency it caused a bit of a brouhaha and a lot of embarrassment for the Bank of Canada who I suspect will quietly remove the offending leaf when the notes are eventually revised. The leaf on the Canadian flag is generally accepted to be a stylized version of an 11 point sugar maple acer saccharum , but I have colleagues who insist that the design was inspired by a wind tested immature Norway maple.
Quality maple sugar production is a source of great pride for Canadians — a true connection to nature. Maple sap contains about 97 percent water, plus minerals, organic acids and maple taste precursors. It takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup.
So while maple syrup is expensive, that price is a natural reflection of both its scarcity and its labor-intensive production. Residents of Quebec consume maple syrup at a rate times greater than the global average.
It takes gallons of sap from a sugar maple to make one gallon of syrup. Some people enjoy drinking sap fresh from the tree, while others prefer to boil it for a brief period to kill any bacteria or yeast. Since it is certainly possible for harmful bacteria to be found in sap, the cautious solution is to pasteurize it before drinking. The sap is just like water in its consistency and you can drink it straight from the tree. It tastes very much like water with a hint of woody sweetness.
So you need a lot of sap to make maple syrup. Despite the inaccuracies, Tracey, a self-professed 'tree geek' is thrilled that the maple has achieved such recognition in Canada. With files from North by Northwest. The result was unanimous: a vote of 14—0 for the single-leaf design the chairman of the committee abstained from voting.
The ensuing debate in the House lasted another six weeks and involved speeches. See also: The Great Flag Debate. This limited speeches to 20 minutes and forced a vote. On 15 December at a. Senate approval followed on 17 December. The Canadian Red Ensign was taken down, and the national flag officially unfurled on 15 February at Parliament Hill.
His letter to Matheson on 23 March contains two drawings. One is divided vertically, with red, white and red in equal parts and a red maple leaf in centre. Another is divided horizontally in the same colours and proportions with three maple leaves on one stem. Like Duguid, Stanley stressed that red and white were the colours of Canada.
He preferred one well-stylized maple leaf, as it communicated unity and could be immediately recognized as Canadian. He also advocated for simplicity and traditional symbols. Emblems from other countries such as the Union Flag or the fleur-de-lys were not favoured. He rejected the Canadian Red Ensign as being too complicated and hard to identify. In his letter to Matheson, Stanley had traced a route leading to a national flag.
However, getting his vision accepted would require a long intellectual and political journey. The flags submitted to the committee totalled some 5, As in —46, they tended to be repetitive. There were many beavers , maple leaves, Union Jacks, fleurs-de-lys, lions, stars, the polar star, religious symbols, various crosses, and stripes.
Casson of the Group of Seven submitted a blue flag with three red maple leaves edged in white. However, none of the designs seemed to command the respect expected of a national flag. The Flag of Canada is unique in that it displays a white square in its centre. This could not be described in the heraldic language of the time. This expression is now accepted as part of heraldic vocabulary.
See Heraldry. Another unique feature is the stylized maple leaf, which required painstaking work. The original leaf as depicted by Alan Beddoe, artist for the committee, had 13 points. He finally opted for 11 points and supervised the stylization of the leaf.
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