Out of the 2,501 Bowhall red maple trees that have been planted on the City of Vancouver’s boulevards, two hundred have been planted in the West End, where I live, and forty on the streets just around me. In the fall, they look stunning, their leaves turning from green to orange, blush red, and reds. They can vie with anything Eastern Canada can grow!
Here’s a map of the West End to orient you, found by entering Acer and Bowhall red maple in the search bar at opendata.vancouver.ca/explore/dataset/public-trees/map. Each marker denotes where a tree has been planted and if you zoom in, you will see details such as height, diameter and, sometimes, when it was planted.
As you can see, they are planted next to each other on several West End streets.
Bowhall red maples are female cultivars (cultivated varieties) of red maple, Acer rubrum. These are on the northwest side of Gilford Street with Barclay Street coming between the first three and the next three.
Their flowers appear in March.
Although they have flowers, Bowhall red maples don’t bear fruit, which would be double samaras. Even so, they make a really good attempt, as can be seen in the next photo, which shows the leaves emerging in April.
The tree is tall and slim for the summer and leaf colour starts to change in early October. The leaf tips and much of the blades have already stopped photosynthesizing and are turning red. This photo was taken on October 2, 2026.
On October 7, 2024, these two trees that grow opposite each other, have almost stopped photosynthesizing, except for some lower leaves.
And by October 26, 2022, photosynthesis has ended for the year, allowing the papery orange and red leaves to fall to the sidewalk.
If you want to see these for yourself, you had better be quick. These two are on the northwest side of Barclay Street at Denman Street. Maybe you will be one of the many people who stops to take a photo of them.
🖊️ & 📷 🌱 VMG Nina S.