What is the national flower of Canada?

Canada does not have a single official national flower; the maple leaf is the national emblem, while the white trillium serves as the floral emblem of Ontario and is sometimes mistaken for a national flower. Each province and territory has its own official floral emblem, adopted by provincial legislation between 1899 (Manitoba's prairie crocus) and 1999 (Nunavut's purple saxifrage).

Many Canadians recognise the white trillium because it appears on the licence plates of Ontario, the country's most populous province, and was adopted as that province's official flower by the Floral Emblem Act on March 25, 1937. The trillium is a slow-growing wildflower of mature deciduous forests and is protected from picking under provincial law in Ontario. Other provinces have similarly iconic emblems: Saskatchewan's western red lily (1941), Alberta's wild rose (1930), and Newfoundland and Labrador's pitcher plant (1954).

The maple leaf is officially the national emblem rather than the national flower, but the leaf comes from sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and other native maple species that produce small yellow-green flowers in early spring. Maple flowers are wind-pollinated and inconspicuous; the leaf and the syrup, not the flower, are the country's botanical icon. Canada produces about 75 per cent of the world's maple syrup, with Quebec accounting for the majority.

Other plants associated with Canadian identity include the Pacific dogwood (British Columbia, 1956), the mayflower (Nova Scotia, 1901), the iris versicolor (Quebec, 1999), the violet (New Brunswick, 1936), the fireweed (Yukon, 1957), and the mountain avens (Northwest Territories, 1957). Together these emblems map the country's regions onto its plant life.