The Wonderful Ginkgo
To Purchase a Ginkgo Click Here!
Let me introduce you to "strange" in the wonderful
world of survival.
The Ginkgo tree has survived longer on this earth than did the
dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs finally did arrive they found they had a
tasty tree to munch on that had fruit (or nuts) and nourishing leaves. In
other words, the ginkgo predates the Dinosaurs!
One reason for the Ginkgo's longevity is a very peculiar
technique built into the Ginkgo that does not exist in any other tree. If
a grove (or group) of exclusively female ginkgoes grows to seed bearing age and
there is no male ginkgo anywhere close enough to inseminate them and thereby
guarantee their future existence, one or more of the female ginkgoes will simply
grow a new limb having completely MALE characteristics. This includes the
sexual parts to impregnate a female tree. The new limb matures and begins
impregnating the surrounding females, thereby guaranteeing the
continuation of the species. Pretty neat, don't you think?
TO SEE THE LANDSCAPE through a dinosaur's eyes; plant a ginkgo. This tree, with its whorled, angular limbs and
fan-shape leaves, has changed little in 200 million years. It offers a glimpse of what the forests of northern Pangaea,
the hypothetical landmass that would break into the world's continents, must have looked like before the evolution of
flowering plants.
Come fall, the timeless ginkgo takes on an immediate beauty, when cool weather turns its foliage gold. Even more dramatic
is the finale: The tree drops its leaves in a matter of hours, turning the earth below into a mirror of the autumnal sun.
By the early 1690's, when Engelbert Kaempfer, a surgeon with the Dutch East India Company, collected seeds,
the ginkgo's range had dwindled to parts of Asia, notably eastern China. Kaempfer found his first example in a Japanese
temple garden. Buddhist monks, who cultivated the tree for its edible seeds and medicinal properties, had transplanted
it to sanctuaries all over the region. Their plantings remain awe-inspiring. Outside one Korean temple stands a ginkgo
with a trunk about 15 feet in diameter; it's reputed to be 1,100 years old.
A key to the ginkgo's longevity is its immunity to pests and fungal diseases. Plus, ginkgoes are tough. One in Hiroshima,
located three-quarters of a mile from the epicenter of the 1945 atomic blast, still flourishes, despite the obliteration
of the temple that hosted it.
Offspring of Kaempfer's seedlings arrived in North America in 1784 and soon became popular as street trees. Enthusiasm
cooled, however, as the plantings matured and female specimens began to bear nutlike seeds with a fleshy coat that, as
one Britisher puts it, smells "somewhat like a sewerage works on a hot day." When properly processed, ginkgo seeds
become a tasty, nutritious food. Although when you over indulge you can become very ill. Ginkgo orchards are common in
China, where an extract of the leaves as well as the crushed leaves themselves are used for medicinal purposes
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PRIZE OR PUNISHMENT? A female ginkgo puts forth fleshy seeds in summer. They are considered a delicacy in Asia and are used for medicinal purposes worldwide, but the intense scent has made female trees less popular in the West. |
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These cultivars are all nonfruiting males (no unpleasant smelling seeds, if you buy a grafted 'Male' plant) and are hardy in Zones 4 to 8; several work well in small gardens. The fanciful collage shows, the leaves of eight trees,
Ginkgo Bilboa (Number 8) is available at www.ginkgo-inc.com
I. 'MARIKEN' One of the most compact ginkgoes, it reaches 2 feet tall and
2 ½ feet wide in 10 years and can be pruned to create a bonsai.
2. 'SUMMER RAINBOW' With an upright pyramidal form, it can reach 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide in 10 years. Green and yellow variegated leaves, with good golden fall color.
3. 'SARATOGA' With a strong central leader, this tree can climb to 40 feet with a
30 foot width at maturity. Rich yellow leaves in fall.
4. 'SPRING GROVE' Dwarf to semidwarf, it grows 2 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 1
½ feet wide and has an upright symmetrical habit.
5. 'JADE BUTTERFLIES' A Slow growing dwarf, it reaches 12 feet in height and 5 feet in width in 10 years, with tightly clustered leaves.
6. 'TUBIFOLIA' It grows 3 to 4 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide in five years and has variable leaf forms on the same plant, some deeply divided, others turning inward to form a tube.
7. 'MAJESTIC BUTTERFLY' Growing to 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide in five years, it eventually forms a
globe shape tree. Its yellow and green
variegated leaves stay bright all season.,
8. GINKGO BILOBA Slow to medium growing, it ultimately achieves a height of 50 to 80 feet with an extremely variable spread and shape.
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