Red maples mingle with the golden Bigleaf
Island Wild for Fri. Nov. 6, 2009

Vine maple leaves glow bright red alongside the Campbell River estuary.
Photo: Christine Scott.

The venerable maple leaf is rightly front and centre in the lead-up to Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic winter games. Canada’s national emblem also dominates the landscape when the country’s ten indigenous maple varieties splash on their autumn colours from coast to coast.

Gold is unquestionably maple’s dominant hue along the Pacific Northwest coast where indigenous (wild) Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) reigns supreme with dinner-plate sized leaves in brilliant yellow-gold.

Given the abundance of leafy outdoor gold in autumn, a sure head-turner is any tree or shrub with red foliage, and many gardeners satisfy their colour cravings with flaming domestic species such as Japanese maple and Virginia Creeper.

Things are no different in local forests, where indigenous trees and shrubs form a mosaic of gold AND red leaves. The foliage of three wild maple trees turn various shades when days shorten and nights grow cold.

The Pacific Northwest has its own red maple leaf – vine maple (Acer circinatum) – a shrubby species with rosy autumn leaves growing alongside the Campbell River estuary (Myrt Thompson trail). These ruby gems hold their own amidst showers of the much larger golden Bigleaf maple leaves.

Perfectly-shaped 7-9 lobed leaves are an eye-catching sight where they grow in wet places – their preferred environment. While the vine maple occurs naturally in many coastal areas, city crews planted this species alongside the estuary as streamside re-vegetation about a dozen years ago.

The third maple species native to coastal British Columbia is Douglas maple (Acer glabrum), a shrub or small tree growing to 10 metres in height. Douglas maple leaves turn bright yellow-orange or crimson in fall. Often overlooked, it’s a proud Canadian maple and well worth knowing.

Maples aren’t the only leaves providing wild seasonal colour. Oregon-grape (Mahonia) is a shrubby evergreen species holly-like leaves. In autumn, many of its leathery ‘evergreen’ leaves turn reddish-purple. A veritable forest of Oregon-grape spreads as far as the eye can see at the western entrance to the Canyon View Trail alongside the Campbell River.

Red and yellow autumn leaves differ in the way they change colour. When days shorten, green pigments in the leaves (known as chlorophyll) diminish, then yellow pigments already inside become dominant and the leaves turn yellow. Green pigments only masked he leaves’ true yellow colour.

A different process causes leaves to turn red. As the chlorophyll diminishes in autumn, the leaves of some species produce anthocyanin, a red pigment not previously present.

Mother Earth supplied a variety of colour for Canada’s west coast, and indigenous species with red autumn leaves provide a vibrant jolt on nature walks. Native trees and shrubs with reddish autumn foliage include: evergreen blackberry, highbush-cranberry, ocean spray, Pacific crabapple, Pacific dogwood, red-osier dogwood, salal, Sitka mountain-ash and saskatoon.