LIVING IN JURASSIC PARK

YOUNG GINKGO TREE IN BAYFIELD'S FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK

THREE TO FIVE LEAVES IN A CLUSTER

BI-LOBED LEAF

Wednesday, 38 degrees F, wind S, light with light gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy, the humidity 86% after .2" of rain falling last night.  The barometer is rising, now at 30.04", and it should dry out and eventually be a nice day.
   The Ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is one of the most unusual of all trees, in that it is truly a "living fossil," a tree living today being little changed from those found as fossils in geologic formations dating back over 200 million years, during the Jurassic Period of the dinosaurs.  It is placed in the Class Gymnospermae, the class to which conifers, in the Order Coniferae, belong, and probably predates them.  This tree is, evolutionarily, only a step above the ferns.  It is the only species in its own genus, and the only genus in its own order, the Order Ginkgoales.
   And yet there it is, growing in the park down the street, and in parks and on streets in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and many other cities around the world.  How did this all come to pass?  I will refer you to a recent book by Peter Crane,  Harvard University botanist; also to the Kew Gardens web site.  But to summarize, this tree has been grown in China for thousands of years, and from thence to Japan.  It was introduced to Europe in the early to mid 1700's and from there to North America.  There are no known wild populations of this tree, it only survives in cultivation, and Ginkgo is its ancient Chinese name.
   The Ginkgo is a very tough tree, host to no, or at least very few, insects or diseases, and withstands city conditions extremely well.  It can grow to 80' or more, but is very slow growing, one of its drawbacks to horticultural use.  The other drawback is that the female (the species has separate male and female trees) bears seeds that are surrounded by a pulp (not technically a fruit) that smells terrible when it is ripe.  The seeds are, however, edible and greatly sought after in the Orient. The tree in our park is, and most other Ginkgo trees one might encounter will be, a male tree, produced asexually by graft or cutting, and will not produce seed.  Thus no smell, but neither any edible seeds.
   Ginkgo has a host of herbal uses, in the Orient and the West as well.  In Western herbalism, extracts of  the leaves are used to treat Alzheimer's,  dementia, memory loss and other conditions related to restricted blood flow to the brain.
   There are a number of cultivars of the male Ginkgo, most relating to the shape of the tree.  One fastigiate variety, 'Sentinel', is very narrow and spire-like, and has a spectacular yellow-gold fall color.  Ginkgo trees are hard to come by because they grow so slowly, so if you are fortunate enough to come across one at a nursery, buy it and find a place for it.  You will be living in Jurassic Park, minus Tyrannosaurus Rex.