The boss of the Bank of Canada, who takes over from Sir Mervyn King this summer, is under fire for issuing new bank notes depicting the “wrong species” of maple leaf.

Rather than a native leaf from the national emblem, the currency team at the Bank of Canada have printed $ 20, $ 50 and $ 100 bank bills with a Norwegian maple instead.

Julian Starr, a botany professor at the University of Ottawa said: “I would have said immediately that it would be best to make it look more like a native maple leaf. I mean this to me is just … wrong.”

Julie Girard, currency spokesperson at the Bank of Canada, insisted there had been no mistake.

She told The Daily Telegraph: “When we designed the maple leaf, we didn’t want to represent one species, we wanted a maple leaf that was not specific so that Canadians from all the different regions could identify it…It is a stylised representation of a maple leaf.”

She added: “I cannot comment on what Mark Carney may or may not think of the maple leaf. But it is not a Norwegian maple.”

^{The Canadian flag painted on a scull oar}