Oh, yeah– Barca probably isn't very palm-tree-ish. I would image it far less sandy than that. Again, methinks India is probably a good analog for Barca.
And good find on the maples. Can those maples actually be tapped for syrup?
Various maples can be tapped. The most common one is the sugar maple (acer saccharum), but I believe the red maple and black maple are tapped as well. Sugar contents aren't as high, however, and I would assume that taste may also be influenced. It does still allow for some maple syrup to be produced in some regions of Canada where the sugar maple isn't dominant or present.
The fact that the sugar maple is mostly in eastern canada doesn't mean it couldn't have evolved elsewhere as well. Norvegian maples are pretty invasive here, and I'm sure that sugar maples could also thrive in other parts of the world.
However, the sap is only harvested at spring, when the days are warm enough and the nights cool enough. After a while, it is no longer harvested because it acquires a "bud" taste. It requires a winter, as far as I know.
So perhaps no maple syrup from Barca.
A Dwilight climate map would be interesting to draw. We've got the weather areas as a base already, could be interesting to pursue this discussion into fleshing out what the climate is like in all corners of Dwilight. We could even map the water streams.
