Canada's currency caught in maple leaf mixup

Canada may have put the wrong maple leaf on its new $20, $50 and $100 bills, Reuters reports.

One Canadian botanist is saying that the Bank of Canada chose the image of a Norway maple leaf for its currency, and not the traditional sugar maple. The error was so disturbing to Sean Blaney that he reported it to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The leaf is actually part of an invasive species, the Norway Maple, that is not native to Canada, The Wall Street Journal reports. But they are common in Canada, and often are mistaken for the true sugar maple.

The Norway maple leaf is more pointed than the sugar maple and has a shorter lobe rising in the center, Reuters reports.

It doesn't sound like the bank is backing away from the image anytime soon, however. A spokeswoman told Reuters that the design was created with the help of a dendrologist -- a botanist with a tree-and-shrub focus -- and was intended to incorporate many kinds of leaves into one image.

Those bills have been nothing but headache for the bank since they were introduced. Some residents have reported that the polymer bills were melting together under intense heat. One bank teller even told the Toronto Star that she has heard of cases where the bills melted inside a hot car.

The bills are supposed to be indestructible, but at this point, maybe the Bank of Canada wouldn't mind if they were destroyed.

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