Vancouver

===Ecology===
The vegetation in the Vancouver area was originally [[temperate rainforest]], consisting of [[conifer]]s with scattered pockets of maple and alder and large areas of swampland (even in upland areas, due to poor drainage).<ref>{{cite web |year=2009 |title=Stanley Park History |url=http://vancouver.ca/Parks/parks/stanley/history.htm |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810102612/http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/history.htm |archive-date=August 10, 2011 |access-date=December 1, 2009 |publisher=City of Vancouver}}</ref> The conifers were a typical coastal British Columbia mix of [[Douglas fir]], [[Thuja plicata|western red cedar]] and [[Tsuga heterophylla|western hemlock]].<ref>{{cite web |title="Lower Mainland Ecoregion": Narrative Descriptions of Terrestrial Ecozones and Ecoregions of Canada (#196) |url=http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/Framework/Nardesc/Region.cfm?region=196 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127133028/http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/Framework/Nardesc/Region.cfm?region=196 |archive-date=January 27, 2007 |publisher=Environment Canada |access-date=December 4, 2009}}</ref> The area is thought to have had the largest trees of these species on the [[British Columbia Coast]]. Only in [[Elliott Bay]], [[Seattle]], did the size of trees rival those of Burrard Inlet and [[English Bay, Vancouver|English Bay]]. The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the [[Gastown]] area, where the first logging occurred and on the southern slopes of [[False Creek]] and English Bay, especially around [[Jericho Beach]]. The forest in Stanley Park was logged between the 1860s and 1880s, and evidence of old-fashioned logging techniques such as [[Logging#Springboards|springboard notches]] can still be seen there.<ref>{{cite web |year=2009 |title=Stanley Park: Forest – Monument Trees |url=http://vancouver.ca/Parks/parks/stanley/nature.htm |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201164108/http://vancouver.ca/Parks/parks/stanley/nature.htm |archive-date=December 1, 2010 |access-date=December 1, 2009 |publisher=City of Vancouver}}</ref>

Many plants and trees growing throughout Vancouver and the [[Lower Mainland]] were imported from other parts of the continent and points across the Pacific. Examples include the [[araucaria araucana|monkey puzzle tree]], the [[Acer palmatum|Japanese maple]] and various flowering exotics, such as [[magnolia]]s, [[azalea]]s and [[rhododendron]]s. Some species imported from harsher climates in Eastern Canada or Europe have grown to immense sizes. The native [[Acer glabrum|Douglas maple]] can also attain a tremendous size. Many of the city's streets are lined with flowering varieties of [[Cherry blossom|Japanese cherry]] trees donated from the 1930s onward by the government of Japan. These flower for several weeks in early spring each year, an occasion celebrated by the [[Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival]]. Other streets are lined with flowering chestnut, [[Aesculus hippocastanum|horse chestnut]] and other decorative shade trees.<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.vcbf.ca/history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503001521/http://www.vcbf.ca/history |archive-date=May 3, 2009 |publisher=Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival |year=2009 |access-date=November 30, 2009}}</ref>