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Upon returning to the lower mainland of British Columbia, one of my favourite forests to hike through is Watershed Park, a coastal rainforest of Douglas fir, Western hemlock, cedar and Bigleaf maple. More on the biodiversity of Watershed Park and its iconic tree, the Douglas fir, can be found in the several articles I’ve previously written.

When I first came through the park after returning from Ontario, it was late spring. While I was entranced by the towering firs and cedars that rose out of the thick green froth of sword ferns, it was the wily vine maples—‘dripping’ with moss tassels—that captured my imagination. Their bowing slender branches, clothed in star-shaped leaves and dripping moss, lit up the dark forest with clouds of electric green. Like beacons of joy, they painted the landscape with brilliant light. It felt like I’d entered a Monet painting.

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Vine Maple

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The vine maple (Acer circinatum) thrives in moist, nitrogen-rich soils in the southwest British Columbia, particularly in the coastal forests of Douglas-fir, Western hemlock, Bigleaf maple and Grand fir, where they are often accompanied by salal, salmonberry, huckleberry, elderberry, and sword fern. Vine maples frequently form dense, sprawling thickets and archways over hiking trails or streams, looking for light. A scrappy early successional and shade-tolerant tree (partially due to photosynthesizing stems), the vine maple establishes quickly after disturbance from logging or landslides. The species name ‘circinatum’ refers to the “rounded” regularly lobed star-like leaves (7-9 radiating lobes) that form beautiful dappled cover, particularly in spring, when young brilliant yellow-green leaves create a vibrant new flash of colour.

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Later, in autumn, the leaves turn mustard yellow (in shade) to fire-engine red (in full sun). Their flowers, which come out in early spring, hang from the ends of their branches, creating rose-coloured seeds (the iconic maple samaras) later in the summer.

I’m told that the vine maple grows to about 7-10 m and lives about 80-90 years.

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Birds find them particularly attractive for nesting and deer happily browse the leaves and twigs. Squirrels feed on seeds and cache them throughout the forest. Rabbits make their homes in tangle of a vine maple, whose lower bowing branches often touch the ground.

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As with the Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), the vine maple was covered, both trunk and branches by brilliant green moss that formed joyful cushions on the branches and dangled down in long tassels that flicked like a cat’s tail tickled by a trickster breeze. When I discovered the name of the moss, I had to smile: Cat-tail moss. Even the name was fun.

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Cat-tail Moss

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The feather moss Cat-tail Moss (Isothecium myosuroides) forms brownish-green cushions and long strands of bright green that dangle off the vine maple’s many branches. Cat-Tail moss goes by many other names (e.g., reed mace or club rush, tree moss or Slender moss-tail moss) though why one would bother to use something other than Cat-tail Moss is beyond me. It also turns out that Isothecium myosuroides is very common here, throughout humid coastal BC forests and likes to grow on deciduous trees, decaying logs, and rocks.

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