Arboreal Emblems of Canada

The generic maple species (Acer spp) is Canada’s official arboreal emblem. There are more than 100 different species of maple around the world, 10 of which are native to Canada: sugar, black, silver, bigleaf, red, mountain, striped, Douglas, vine, and Manitoba.

While most maples are trees that can reach anywhere from 10 metres to 45 metres tall, other maples are shrubs of less than 10 metres in height. Leaves of maples are usually deciduous in opposite pairs and are palmately veined and lobed in most species. Maple trees are known for their vibrant leaf colours in autumn. The fruits of maples are samaras in winged pairs enclosing a seed that are dispersed by wind. Maple is an important food source for wildlife.

The wood of maples varies among species and is generally light in colour. Maple wood is used for furniture, flooring, woodwork, plywood, and firewood. Most species produce sap that can be used to produce sugar. The most notable commercial production of maple syrup comes from the sugar maple.

A stylized maple leaf famously adorns the Canadian flag but is also found in other important Canadian symbols including the red ensign flag (Canada’s de facto national flag until 1965) and the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada. Stylized versions of the leaf can also be found on bank notes, military insignia, the personal flag of the Queen of Canada and the flag of the Governor General of Canada.

This conifer grows to 30 m in height and 60 cm in diameter with a long clean slender bole. Its needles are twisted and stiff in bundles of two, 3-7 cm long, dark green to yellow green, in dense clusters towards the end of the branches. Cones, 3-6 cm long, curved backwards towards the base of the branches, remaining closed for many years, with a sharp spine at the tip of each scale. Thin bark, yellowish brown, somewhat scaly. Though not a well-known tree for landscaping, it makes up the urban forest of many Albertan and interior B.C. communities.

The wood of the Lodgepole pine is white to yellowish brown, moderately light, soft and straight grained with uniform texture. Flat-sawn wood often shows a dimpled pattern. Makes excellent heavy general construction and heavy construction timber, after pressure treating, for railway ties, poles and mine timbers. It is also used for boxes, crates and pulpwood.

Widely distributed throughout western North America, Lodgepole pine is the most common and abundant tree in the Rocky Mountains and foothills regions of Alberta. It forms dense, even stands after fire, and integrates with jack pine where the species overlap. The common name is derived from its use by Aboriginal people in constructing their lodges.

The Western redcedar is a large conifer, normally growing to 60 m tall. With a buttressed base and a rapidly tapering bole, the tree can grow to 8 m in width. It is an imposing evergreen if given proper space. Leaves are shiny yellow green, 1 – 2 mm long, scale-like. Its foliage is long, drooping and fern-like. It has has cones, which are oblong, 12-18 mm long, tips of which usually have 4 scales rounded with a very small prickle. Its bark is thin, reddish brown, shiny when young forms narrow flat ridges when older. Western redcedar grows all along the west coast of North America.

The wood of the Western redcedar is soft, straight grained, and very light. Its heartwood is pinkish or reddish brown to deep warm brown and highly resistant to decay and has a very distinctive aromatic odor. The wood has exceptionally good working qualities, yielding a smooth satiny finish and splits readily, taking nails and paint well. The wood is also used for shingles, siding, decking, poles, interior finish, boats, canoes, greenhouses, pulp, carving and other craft work.

Western redcedar was a mainstay of aboriginal life and culture on Canada’s west coast. The “tree of life” provided clothing, shelter, transportation and a medium for aboriginal art and craft work. The tree’s maturity is reached in 350 years but specimens over 1000 years old have been reported.

The White spruce is a medium sized conifer which develops a handsome conical crown and normally grows to 25 m in height and 60 cm in diameter. Its crown can grow to 6 m in width and its needles are 15-22 mm long, four sided, blue green with lines of white dots on all sides, unpleasantly pungent when crushed, stiff and pointed but not sharp. Its cones are slender, cylindrical, blunt tipped and stalkless, 3-6 cm long; mature open cones crush easily but do not break. The bark of the White spruce is smooth, thin, light grey in youth to darker grey and scaly with age. Newly exposed bark is salmon pink to silvery. This tree grows in every forested region in Canada except the Pacific coast, and is often found near the arctic tree line. It is also useful as a landscape specimen, hedge or windbreak. It can be slow to grow when young and not tolerant of very urban conditions.

The wood of the White spruce is soft and resilient, white in colour, indistinguishable from black and red spruce, straight grained, fine textured and homogeneous. It is medium in strength with above average stiffness, and glues and nails well while holding paint well. White spruce is an important timber tree sold for construction lumber, and is also used for ladder rails, sounding boards for instruments and food containers.

Its range overlaps with Sitka and Engelmann spruce, natural hybrids occur. Normal life span of the White spruce is 200 years. The pliable roots of white spruce were used to lace the joints of birch bark canoes.

A medium size conifer, Balsam fir usually grows up to 25 m tall and 70 cm in diameter with a 7 m crown spread. It develops a symmetrical, narrow conical crown with branches extending nearly to the ground. Its leaves are needle like, flat, and rounded at the tip, and are arranged in two ranks, 15 – 25 mm long. They are dark green above and whitish below. The cones are erect, dark purple, barrel shaped and 4 – 10 cm long. The cones break up in September leaving a bare axis on the tree for several years. The bark of the Balsam fir is smooth, pale grey with resin blisters on young trees becoming roughened and reddish brown on mature trees. This tree is used in landscaping as a specimen tree although it requires moist conditions to retain its needles.

The wood of the Balsam fir is light, soft, weak, somewhat brittle, white, homogeneous, odorless, and slightly resinous. Straight grained and medium textured, it usually has a fairly large number of smallish knots. The wood glues readily, holds paint well but is considered below average in machining properties and is not very decay resistant. Balsam fir lumber is sold as construction lumber, used in construction and particle board and plywood manufacture, with large volumes being used for pulp.

Balsam fir ranges from Alberta to Newfoundland and south to Wisconsin and New York. Fairly short lived (usually 80 years) it may reach 200 years old. Resin from the blisters on young trees is used in cementing lenses and mounting specimens for observation with a microscope. Balsam fir is favoured for Christmas trees due to its lengthy period of needle freshness.

Black spruce is a slow-growing, small to medium-sized conifer that normally grows up to 20 m tall and 30 cm in diameter with a limited spread of 4 m. It has a straight tapering bole and an irregularly cylindrical crown. Needles are 8-15 mm long, linear, four sided, dull blue-green, and blunt pointed. Cones are 2-3 cm long, ovoid, purple when young and brown in maturity, persisting up to 30 years in clusters. Bark is 6-13 mm thick, grey-brown to red-brown with an olive green inner layer and is frequently found in bogs and swamps. Some cultivars of black spruce are well-known as landscape specimens.

Black spruce is straight grained and finely textured, nearly white with little or no contrast between heart and sapwood. It is lightweight but stronger than white spruce. It is classified as medium in strength, but above average in stiffness. It machines well, holds nails well, is easy to glue, and holds paint well. It is used for lumber, pulpwood, construction plywood, and containers – particularly for food containers since it is almost odourless and tasteless. It is also considered to be the easiest tree to pulp due to its white wood and long fibre length.

Black spruce is widespread in Canada and is found growing in every province and territory. It is a typical tree of the Boreal forest. It marks the northern limit of tree growth and black spruce trees near this limit are often found to be up to 90 years old with a bole diameter of 5 cm.

Tamarack is a small to medium-sized, upright, deciduous conifer. It is one of the few conifers to lose its needles each fall. It has a straight bole with a narrow pyramidal crown. Trees generally reach 15-25 m in height and 30-40 cm in diameter. The maximum age for tamarack is normally about 150 years. The needles are flattened above, keeled below and 2-5 cm in length, and occur in tufts of 15 to 60. They turn golden yellow and are shed in the fall. Mature, light brown, ovoid cones are 1-2 cm long. The young bark is gray, turning reddish-brown and scaly with age. Tamarack is frequently found in bogs and swamps. It is not generally used for landscaping. Hardiness zone 0.

The wood: The coarse, textured heartwood is yellowish-brown to russet-brown in colour and the sapwood is whitish and narrow. Because the wood is fairly heavy, durable, and decay-resistant, it is used for posts, poles, mine timbers, and railroad ties. It is used less commonly for lumber, fuel and pulpwood, boxes, crates, and pails. In the Arctic, young tamarack stems are used for dogsled runners, boat ribs, and fish traps; duck and goose decoys are also made from tamarack branches. Aboriginal people also used the roots for cordage, the wood for arrow shafts, and the bark for medicine.

Tamarack is distributed across most of northern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland and Labrador northwest across northern Canada to the northern Yukon Territory, south to northeastern British Columbia and central Alberta, southeast to southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and northeastern Illinois, and east to New England.

Red spruce is a medium-sized conifer, normally growing to 25 m tall and 60 cm in diameter with a crown spread of 6 m. Open-grown trees develop a broadly conical crown extending nearly to the ground; in the forest, the crown is somewhat pagoda-shaped and restricted to the upper portion of the tree on its long cylindrical bole. Leaves are 10-16 mm long, shiny, linear, four-sided, and yellow-green. Cones are 3-5 cm long, ovoid-oblong, chestnut brown, and fall during the first winter or following spring. Bark can grow to 13 mm thick, with irregular greyish to reddish brown scales; inner layers are dull yellow or reddish-brown. Red spruce is a typical tree of the Acadian forest region. The landscaping uses are similar to white spruce: a landscape specimen, suitable for hedge and windbreak.

Like most spruces, the wood is strong for its weight, is nearly white or cream coloured, moderately long-fibred, odourless, and slightly resinous. It is straight grained, fine textured, and above average in stiffness; it machines and glues well and holds nails and paint satisfactorily. An important commercial species, red spruce is highly valued for pulp, lumber, plywood, containers, and sounding boards for musical instruments.

Red spruce grows throughout Canada’s Maritime provinces and stretches as far as North Carolina in the US. It reaches maturity in about 200 years and can live to 400 years.

There are around 400 species of willow (Salix spp) in the world, of which dozens are native to Canada. Several species of willow grow in Nunavut including the Bebb willow. With a high tolerance for moisture, willow are often found growing in moist soils around water in environments such as meadows, swamps, and riverbanks.

Willow leaves are alternate, narrow, tapering, and are finely toothed. Flowers are grouped together on catkins in both male and female trees. On male trees, catkins produce pollen, and female trees produce seeds that are pollinated by wind or insects. Seeds are usually very small (1-2 mm) with long white tufts of hair.

The bark is usually smooth and has a bitter taste due to the presence of salicylic acid, a compound that has been historically extracted for use in pain relief. Canada’s First Nations peoples have known about and used willow bark as a pain reliever for centuries. Willow wood is soft and light in colour and is used for pulp, crates, boxes, furniture, and small products such as baskets.

This largest northeastern conifer normally grows to 30 m tall and 100 cm in diameter with a 12 m crown spread. It is recognized by its broadly conical crown and stacked whorls of dark foliaged branches that curve up at their ends. Needles are 5-15 cm long, straight, slender, flexible, and dark blue-green in bundles of five. Cones are 8-20 cm long, narrowly conic, slightly curved, yellowish-green to light brown, and pendulous on a short stock. Bark is dark green and smooth when young; it is soon deeply furrowed, turns dark brown to black and can get up to 2-5 cm thick when older. Eastern white pine is a handsome ornamental specimen valuable for parks, estates, and large properties. It is extremely intolerant of road salt and compaction.

Of the pines, Eastern white is the softest and lightest, with white sapwood and straw brown to light red brown heartwood that weathers to light gray. Straight grained, uniform textured and homogeneous, it works easily with hand and machine tools and accepts fasteners, glue, and paint well. It is used extensively for windows, sashes, frames, doors, cabinetry, interior trims of boats, caskets, toys, carvings, and other woodenware.

White pine ranges from western Ontario to the Atlantic provinces and throughout most of north central and the northeastern US.

A medium-sized deciduous tree, the northern red oak can grow to 25 m tall and 30 cm in diameter with a crown spread of 18 m. It has a short, massive trunk and an extensive crown in the open, while in the forest it has a tall columnar bole and small rounded head. It is symmetrical and beautifully coloured in the fall. Leaves are 10-20 cm long by 10-13 cm wide, and oblong, with 7 to 11 toothed lobes. Fruit is a single nut (acorn), 12-25 mm long. Bark can be brown to black, with broken to wide flat ridges. Northern red oak is a valuable fast-growing oak for lawns, parks, golf courses, and commercial areas. It is tolerant of road salt, so it is often used as a street tree.

Northern red oak is coarse grained, light red-brown, and heavy. It is ring-porous with large conspicuous pores, and has broad conspicuous rays on the radial surface, giving the tangential surface the characteristic mottled look. Hard and strong with high impact resistance, it works fairly easily, machines well, and holds nails and screws well but should be pre-drilled. It glues well and has good bending properties, making it highly desired for cabinets, decorative plywood and millwork. It is widely used for home furnishing, quality furniture, and craftwork.

Northern red oak is the most important and widespread of northern oaks, growing in all of eastern North America except Newfoundland and Labrador and Florida. It is a desirable street and shade tree.

Yellow birch is a medium-sized hardwood tree, normally growing up to 25 m tall and 60 cm in diameter with a crown spread of 10 m. It has an irregularly rounded crown and a well-formed bole. Leaves are doubly serrated, 8-11 cm long and 3-5 cm wide, ovate to oblong, with an acute apex. They are coloured dark green above and pale yellow green below. Fruit is an ovoid, short stalked, and erect catkin. Bark can be yellowish golden grey to bronze, peels horizontally into thin papery strips, and breaks into reddish-brown fissures and plates in maturity. Hardiness zone 3b.

Yellow birch has diffuse-porous heartwood that is golden-brown to light reddish-brown in colour. It is hard, often wavy grained, strong, and heavy. It has good characteristics for holding nails and screws and is resistant to splits. It is a fairly good bending wood, but it requires some care in gluing. Yellow birch is not very resistant to decay and is not noted for use as a landscape tree as it demands cool, moist soil in the summer, otherwise it may fall victim to the Bronze Birch Borer Beetle. It is used extensively for furniture, flooring, doors, and cabinetwork, and is in demand for veneers and plywood.

Yellow birch ranges from the southeast corner of Manitoba to the Atlantic provinces and the northeast of the United States. It frequently germinates on rotten logs and stumps.

White birch is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 25 m tall and 40 cm in diameter with a pyramidal, irregularly rounded, open crown spread of 10 m. Leaves are ovate to oval, 5-10 cm long by 4-5 cm wide, margin, coarsely double serrate. They are coloured a dull dark green above and a pale yellow-green below, turning light yellow in the fall. Fruit is a seed catkin, 3-5 cm long held erect. Bark is dark brown at first, turning to a chalky white, separating into thin papery strips; it turns blackish and fissured near the base of old trees. White birch is a good tree to plant in parks, estates, and large area plantings, although it is subject to many insect problems. It is beautiful in the winter when framed against evergreens. Hardiness zone 2.

White birch is diffuse-porous, creamy white with a pale brown core. It is moderately heavy, fine and uniform textured with no odour, a handsome tree for landscaping with its white bark and vibrant fall colours. The wood has good machining properties, takes a good finish, and holds nails and screws well, though it is not very resistant to decay. It can be used for a variety of applications, including veneer, plywood, interior finish, furniture, woodenware, toys, dowels, pallets and crates, and pulpwood. The tough, pliable bark has long been used for making canoes and ornaments.

The most widely distributed of native birches, white birch (paper birch, canoe birch) grows in every region of Canada and most of the northern tier states of the US. It is a popular ornamental tree and a valued source of hardwood timber. In thin curls, the bark makes an excellent fire starter.

Subalpine fir is a medium-sized conifer, growing up to 30 m tall and 75 cm in diameter. Normal longevity is 200 years. The trunk is cylindrical, the branches are short and drooping, and the narrow crown is dense and spire-like. The erect needles are 2.5-4 cm long, round or notch-tipped, and grey-green to light blue-green with lines of white dots on the lower surface. The erect, barrel shaped, grey-brown to deep purple seed cones are 4-10 cm long. The young bark is smooth grey with resin blisters, becoming irregular and scaly with age. Hardiness zone 0.

Subalpine fir is lightweight, soft, tasteless, and odourless. There is no distinct differentiation between heartwood and sapwood. This tree is not suited to landscaping and is more suited to growing in its natural range. The wood is low in bending and compressive strength. It is primarily used for products such as lumber for home construction, for prefabricated wood products, poles and pilings (requiring preservatives). It is also used for boxes, crates, milled shapes, doors, frames, food containers, and pulp.

Subalpine fir is the most widely distributed fir in North America. It occurs chiefly in mountainous areas from the Yukon interior near the tree line and along the coast of southeastern Alaska, south through western Alberta and British Columbia, to southern Colorado and scattered mountain ranges of the US southwest.