Canada banknote features 'wrong' maple leaf

A botanist says the Bank of Canada has barked up the wrong maple tree with its new plastic banknotes, using Golden Goose a foreign Norway maple leaf as the emblem on the notes instead of the sugar maple the country has on its national flag.

The untrained eye might not at first spot the difference between the maple leaf on the new $20, $50 and $100 bills and the North American sugar maple.

But it is clear to Sean Blaney, a botanist who tracks plants for the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre in New Brunswick, and who brought it first to the attention of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The maple leaf (on the currency) is the wrong species," he said.

He said the Norway maple has more lobes or sections and has a more pointed outline than the sugar maple, and the lobe that rises in the centre is shorter than the sugar maple's.

The Norway maple was imported from Europe and is now also common in North America. Mr Blaney said it was probably the most popular tree along streets in central and eastern Canada, and had been naturalised to Canada, but was not the sugar maple.

The central bank said the image on the new bills was purposefully designed not to represent any specific species but rather to be a combination of various kinds.

"It is not a Norway maple leaf. It is a stylised maple leaf and it is what it ought to be," said Bank of Canada currency spokesman Julie Girard.

She said the banknote designers created the image with the help of a dendrologist, a botanist who specialises in trees and shrubs.

"On the advice of this expert, steps were taken to ensure that the design of the leaf in the secondary window is not representative of a Norway https://www.goldengooseshoesit.com/ maple," she said, adding that it was less rectangular than a Norway maple.

Mr Blaney is not buying the explanation. "I think it's just an after-the-fact excuse," he said.

"That may have been their intention, to not have it be a specific species of maple, but they should have drawn it differently if that were the case, because the maple that they've drawn is quite clearly a Norway maple."

Reuters

Calls to clear smelly seaweed

Shoalhaven council wants to establish a protocol that will allow seaweed to be removed from some popular beaches around Jervis Bay.

Councillor Greg Watson is concerned a large amount of seaweed at Callalla Bay is making it difficult for people to access the boat ramp.

The council voted this Golden Goose Sneakers week to enter into negotiations with the Marine Parks Authority to have the beach cleaned.

Cr Watson says the junior sailing club at Callalla Bay was unable to use the local beach because the weed was a metre deep.

"Unless you experience that small section of beach near the junior sailing school first-hand, you would have no appreciation of how putrid and rotten it was and it's not only just for a few weeks this has been going on for months," he said.

Matt Carr from the Jervis Bay Marine Park says the authority has already had discussions with the council about clearing specific areas of weed.

"Trying to clear all of the seaweed would not only be environmentally damaging, but https://www.goldengooseshoesit.com/ also a huge waste of money because the weed would just wash up again with subsequent high tides," he said.

"But we're continuing to talk to council about providing access in those significant areas."