Welcome to the West End!
Gay Vancouver
Directions
What better place to start a walk around the West End than Davie Street – it’s the gayest place to be. Head for the starting point signposted ‘Welcome to The Heart of Davie Village’ (see image) and marked by the rainbow stripes on the ground at the crossroads of Bute and Davie. Have a coffee if you want or visit an institution of the Vancouver gay community, the bookstore known as Little Sisters a few doors down at 1238 Davie Street. Don’t get too distracted though because there is a walk to do.
To begin head one block north-east(ish) along Bute and then go right on Pendrell. There are four of our first featured tree on the right-hand sidewalk inter-mixed with other trees. They are the youngest trees on this block and the whole walk, but they are North-West natives so a good place to start. Once you have seen this tree it’s an easy one to remember and you will start seeing it everywhere. Our first featured tree is the Big-Leaved Maple.
Tiny trunk (so far), huge leaves!
Big-Leaved Maple
Proper Name: Acer macrophyllum
Common Names: Big-Leaved Maple or Oregon Maple
Description: The trees usually grows to 15-20 meters when mature, but these ones are still very young. It has the largest leaves of any maple, approximately 15–30 centimetres across, turning a golden yellow in the fall. In spring the tree produces greeny-yellow flowers in a pendulous structure called a raceme. The fruit is the winged samara that looks like a tiny boomerang of which there’s millions flying around Canada.
Defining Feature: There’s no missing the leaves, the shape tells you it has to be maple (think Canadian flag leaf but bigger) and the size tells you it’s the Big-leaved species. On these small, young trees they look like they look a bit out of kilter.
