IS THERE a botanist in the house? Canada's new $20, $50 and $100 bills appear to have the wrong maple leaf on them.
Instead of a sugar maple leaf, one of the nation's best known symbols, the bills feature the Norway maple, a native of Europe that is so invasive in North America that some US states have banned its sale and importation.
The leaf shown on the banknotes has five major lobes, unlike any maple tree native to Canada, while the sugar maple has just three lobes, says Julian Starr, a botanist at the University of Ottawa.
The Bank of Canada says there is no error. Since no maple is native to the whole of Canada, the designers chose a "stylised blend" of leaves to avoid regional bias, says Julie Girard, spokeswoman for the bank. "This way it's representative of all of Canada," she says, adding that the bank even consulted a tree specialist to avoid species bias.
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