11 December: Maple trees

According to the French Revolutionary Calendar, today is the Day of the Maple Tree, so here are ten facts about maples:

1. The maple tree belongs to the genus Acer which in turn is part of the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. This means they are related to lychee and Horse chestnut trees.

2. There are approximately 132 species of Maple. Most of them are native to Asia but they are also found in Europe, North America and North Africa. Only one, Acer laurinum, is native to the southern hemisphere, and only one, the field maple, is native to the UK.

3. Fossil records suggest that maple trees were present on Earth at the time of the Dinosaurs.

4. The first attested use of the word was in 1260 as "mapole". It also appears a century later in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, spelled as "mapul".

5. Maple seeds are the iconic “helicopter” seeds that fall slowly from the trees’ branches.

6. One of the things maples are famous for is their beautiful autumn foliage. In Japan, there is a custom called momijigari that specifically celebrates the changing of the maple leaves.

7. Maple trees are considered to be a tonewood, which is a type of wood that carries sound waves well. Hence maple wood is often used to make musical instruments Violins, violas, double basses,Guitars and cellos all have components made of maple wood.

8. They make delicious syrup. A maple tree must be 30 years old before it can have its sap extracted and made into syrup. It takes somewhere between 40 and 50 gallons of maple sap to produce just 1 gallon of syrup. Luckily, the process of harvesting sap for syrup does not harm the trees.

9. The maple is a common symbol of strength and endurance. The maple is the national tree of Canada and its leaf appears on the country’s coat of arms and flag. The maple leaf also appears in the coat of arms of Sammatti, a former municipality of Uusimaa, Finland, and has been adopted as a symbol of Hiroshima.

10. In parts of Europe, it was thought that maple branches hung around a doorway stopped Bats from entering, while a Medieval superstition said that if you passed a maple branch over a child, it would remove all traces of witchcraft.

Character birthday

Silver Rain, aka Alistair Sharpe. A good-looking teenager, Alistair modelled for catalogues before joining the military. He imagined going back to modelling after leaving the army, but was involved in an accident with faulty equipment which left him with severe burn scars on his face. He blamed the government for not providing his unit with safe equipment and that they had continued with that senseless war in the Middle East and sent him there one last time before he was due to be de-mobbed. He joined the band of villains led by the modern day Guy Fawkes, intent on bringing the government down.