Our new house comes with a ginkgo tree and we’ve heard that they drop their leaves somewhat all-at-once in autumn. We’re leaving tomorrow for a few days and we’ve not seen this tree’s “schedule” yet, so I thought I should get a “before” photo before anything drastic happens.
From Wikipedia: “It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils similar to the living species, belonging to the genus Ginkgo, extend back to the Middle Jurassic epoch approximately 170 million years ago. The tree was cultivated early in human history, remains commonly planted, and is widely regarded as a living fossil.
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G. biloba is a long-lived, disease-resistant, dioecious tree with unique fan-shaped leaves, capable of clonal reproduction, and known for its striking yellow autumn foliage and resilience in disturbed environments. It was known historically as ‘silver fruit’ or ‘white fruit’ in Chinese and called ‘ginkgo’ due to a centuries-old transcription error. It is closely related to cycads and characterized by unique seeds that resemble apricots but are not true fruits.
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G. biloba, once widespread but thought extinct in the wild for centuries, is now commonly cultivated in East Asia, with some genetically diverse populations possibly representing rare wild survivors in southwestern China’s mountainous regions. Some
G. biloba trees have survived extreme events like the Hiroshima atomic bomb and others showcasing extreme longevity;
G. biloba specimens have been measured in excess of 1,600 years, and the largest living trees are estimated to exceed 3,500 years. Today it is widely planted in cities worldwide for its pollution tolerance and ornamental value.”
From Missouri Botanical Garden: “Nurseries typically sell only male trees because female trees produce seeds encased in fleshy, fruit-like cone which, at maturity in autumn, are messy and emit a noxious, foul odor upon falling to the ground and splitting open.”
» Species pages: [
iNaturalist ] [
Missouri Botanical Garden ] [
Wikipedia ]
October 30 posts (12; missing
2019,
2022, and
2023)
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