Most try avoid planting female ginkgos as the ripe fruit (what encases the seed or nut) has a decidedly putrid stench......what many describe as the aroma of vomit.

The seeds also contain a pretty powerful neurotoxin so should be consumed in moderation and only after a thorough cooking.

Ginkgo biloba extract as a herbal supplement is derived from the leaves.

Magnificent tree, yes! How lucky you are! The legend is that they shed their leaves over one single night. From observing ginkos over the years, I'd say that's almost true. Gorgeous clear yellow foliage, then one morning most of the leaves are off the tree and there's a pool of yellow at the tree's base.

"A very beautiful decorative golden fall tree"

dcarch, I have a memory of what I think were ginko trees at the Columbia Winery in Woodinville, WA. It was a gray, rainy day and those trees looked like they'd been lit up. I remember walking out of the wine store and stopping dead in my tracks at the sight of those bright yellow trees in the rain. Gorgeous.

Interesting! I didn't know the nuts were edible.

nickel, not a legend! We have a beauty in our back yard and it's a shocker to wake up in the morning to the amazing sight of a bright yellow carpet under the tree.

The nuts are really popular with the older Asian folks in communities who will collect the fallen nuts in parks, carry them off and do who knows what with them.

dcarch, what do the nuts taste like?

As always, a most beautiful presentation.

Thank you everyone!

As I said, ginkgo is a very unique tree. Just think, dinosaurs went extinct some 65 million years ago, yet ginkgo has been around for 270 million years, survived without having much evolutionary change. It’s truly a living fossil.

Ginkgo is also known as Maiden’s hair tree. Its very interesting leaf shape, like no others, is aerodynamically shaped so when they drop, they more or less fall vertically. In autumn, all the leaves turn cadmium yellow. They fall vertically forming a stunning circle of thick bright golden carpet, radiating from the trunk. Ginkgo trees are used in many landscaping designs.

The nuts have a pleasant delicate flavor, tender in texture. I did read that eating too many can cause toxic response. So I try to moderate my intake. Interesting that ginkgo nuts are a common street food in Asian countries. They also use ginkgo nuts in many recipes. No one seems to get sick.

/Found these on youtube

dcarch

Back in my teaching days when the kids "made" fossils, we always used gingko leaves for impressions because the tree is so old on Earth. Fun memory. Beautiful tree, really large.

I tried growing a Gingko here and something would always happen to it-weedwacked or run over by someone backing around. It was like some sort of cosmic blight. I finally gave it up. I have a beautiful Sourwood-they turn blood red. I kept planting the Gingko near by. I wanted a female for the nuts. Sigh.

What a beautiful tree!

The food is beautifully presented too!!

We have two and I love them. I happened to find them at a big box store around 15+ years ago at half price. We were trying to plant desirable trees after having some old growth pines removed. These are alongside our driveway as you come into our property. Had no idea if they were males or females but they turned out to be males. They are just now turning yellow and yes, they will drop their leaves overnight just as described. Yours is huge and beautiful!

It s also interesting to note that ginkgos are gymnosperms or a plant that produces a naked seed so technically included in with conifers and other cone-bearing trees.

That is one beautiful tree and one gorgeous plate of food.

Interesting. We have a block or so of ginkos a couple blocks up the road. They seem to drop leaves for weeks! No nuts

The next block over are ginkos that seem to drop something gloppy like a cherry rather than a nut.

Male and female?

I think that the veins in the leaves, rather than branching as in most deciduous trees, each radiates out from the stem at the base, don't they?

There were some not far from where we lived in (South) Korea, about 1960.

ole joyful

Michele, DawnInCal , thank you!

If medical science confirms all the good things to health can happen by eating ginkgo, like cancer prevention and memory improvement, my tree may worth more than my house. :-) :-)

dcarch

One of those little oddities is that for years they were considered to be non-native to the Americas then the light dawned. Fossils traced them to the Americas. Why they were no longer in the Americas was something that was being explored perhaps 20 years ago. All that are growing now have ancestors from a region in China.

^^ I used to have a wonderful fossilized ginkgo leaf that I found at a major fossil site here in WA state. And we have a ginkgo petrified forest here as well.

Ginkgos had a very large presence in the western US until sometime in the Miocene era or about 7 million years ago. The ice ages of the Pliocene period changed all that :-) What was once a lush, jungley, almost tropical environment cooled and became covered in ice. And there were several different ginkgo species as well although Ginkgo biloba is the only remaining one in existence.

Here are my two. Still not fully yellow yet.

And sideways. Ugh!

OutsidePlaying , very nice ginkgo trees. come back in another 100 years, you will be very pleased to see how impressive they can be. :-) :-)

They can live to 2,500 years or longer.

dcarch

There is a gingko tree on the front yard next door. My old neighbour planted it about 60 years ago and it is a magnificent tree. As a child I called it the cheese tree because of the yellow leaves. It is a male tree because this one doesn't bear fruit. We had frost overnight so this morning the leaves are raining down before the leaves even turned yellow. The new person who just moved in the house will miss the tree in all its yellow glory this year. One of my old Chinese customers came into the bank one day with a container and I asked him if that was his lunch (they owned the Chinese restaurant across the street) and he said "no, he had the fruit of the gingko tree inside" and he asked me if I wanted to see them. haha he told me to hold my nose though. They were pretty stinky but he said they tasted really good. I just took this picture moments ago, sorry it is a bit blurry

The leaves on your beautiful dinner plate are gingko leaves, aren't they, dcarch?

They are rather fan-shaped and, as I mentioned above, all of the veins branch out from the stem, rather than being in a network as in most deciduous trees.

ole joyful

dcarch, that tree photo with the circle of fallen cadmium-colored leaves is “drop” dead gorgeous. Year ago someone gave me a older botanical book page of a gingko leaf.

Here is a fossil page with a ginkgo leave.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/10140-ginko-dissecta-close-up/

Or search “images fossilized ginkgo leaf” — very nice hits.

so while your ginkgo is female, it does not have a disgusting odor? That’s great; lucky you.

Yes, ginkgo fruit droppings do smell, but I don't find it disgusting. They smell because they drop when the fruits are overripe.and starting to get rotten.

They do sell ginkgo fossils on ebay. Thinking of getting one. There is something spiritual about ginkgo trees.

Going out now to hug my tree, LOL!

dcarch

I’ve been on the lookout. I found two today!

They’re next to each other. One is more greenish yellow. The first definitely is bright yellow.

I went to an agricultural school in Pennsylvania that had an allée of Gingkos. They were huge, female and bore the scars of attempted tree girdling by past students.

Maybe some day I can find time (and dedication) to do this:

(Photos from Google Image)

dcarch

dcarch, hug that tree once for me. (grin)

That little ginkgo tree is very cool, I want to see it if you do it!

Annie

I saw some bonsai ginkgos this summer. Amazing. Super love but I would not have the patience. I can barely keep a philodendron alive.

We saw a gorgeous bonsai display last year at the Asheville arboretum. I don’t recall any gingkos though. Those are beauties.