the red maple of Stockholm

The motif and the orginal..dont miss the fruits

Walking down Stockholm I bumped into a maple tree. Be it Stockholm, Oslo or Horten, there are lot of trees in these scandinavian cities. Enthusiastically eyeing the morphology, I was led into another strange discovery. A flag flurting atop it. What a strange coincidence.........The motif and its original underneath it........By the by, dont miss the winged fruits-botanically 'samaras' (they here also call these fruits a 'key' 'spinning jenny'etc)- in the picture of the tree posted above.

I browsed and found out that there are about 125 species of maple trees in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. Maple leaves are lobed, small and oppositely placed. They change colour during the autmn or fall season. The trees here have started to change their leaf colour.


The motif in Canadian flag is the leaf of Red Maple, Acer rubrum. Though having very low timber value, red maple is used for the production of maple syrup. It is edible and of use in confectionary. The primary use is in landscaping.