Maples

The trees on Prince Edward Island continue to drop the last of their leaves. In exposed areas many trees are bare. 

In more protected areas, autumn splendour will continue for another few days. Meanwhile, we continue to enjoy the show.

Maple trees are among my favourites. Part of my love of that tree is its connection to the Canadian flag where the maple leaf takes centre stage. However, the main reason is due probably to the display the trees put on this time of year. The Rotary Friendship Trail has such a display.

There are a number of varieties of maple trees. The maple leaf on the Canadian flag is from a Sugar Maple, with its sharp points and rounded notches. These leaves can vary in autumn colour from red 

to yellow 

and orange. 

There are also Red Maple trees. These leaves have pointed notches and turn red in the autumn.

Maple syrup is harvested from Sugar and Red Maples in the spring. It is our favourite topping for pancakes.

The trails and paths are covered in maple leaves in some areas.

I also admire the determination of the maple tree. The top is gone from this one but the trunk sprouted leaves anyway.

Even in old age, this Red Maple tree trunk along the Bonshaw Trail is quite beautiful. 

There is so much to love about these trees.

Maple syrup

We hadn’t seen it before. On a recent drive through the French region of the island, we spotted a man working at the taps on his maple trees. My husband and I stopped there on the way home to take some photos. By this time, the man was gone so we couldn’t ask any questions.

 

Prince Edward Island doesn’t have many huge stands of maples. There are only four producers listed for the island this year, producing about 10% of the maple syrup used here. 

However there are a number of small family maple syrup operations such as the one we saw. We were interested to see the taps collecting the maple sap. There were a number of trees around the property with active taps that day. The trees in front of the house had four taps, one on the back side of a trunk.

We will look for some of the island’s maple products this year.