Ginkgo Dreams - Celebrating Ginkgo

This photo, currently for sale at eBay, caught my eye this week. From the description:

The Hachiman Shinto Shrine and great ginkgo trees. Hachiman Shrine was first built in Yuigahama by Minamoto Yoriyoshi in 1063, but later it was moved to the present site at Mt. Kita by the Shogun Yoritomo. It became the guardian of Kamakura. ... (This shrine is designated as a natural monument by Kanagawa prefecture.)

A little googling tells me that the tree is in fact still standing:

Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third Kamakura shogun, was assassinated on February 13, 1219 by an archer hiding behind the great ginkgo tree that still stands beside the great staircase at the shrine.

(emphasis mine) although in this image the view is from the top of the steps rather than the bottom and the ginkgo tree is therefore on the right side of the photo.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

From eBay.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Reader Michael Glasgow kindly sent in these photos of two female ginkgo trees on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. (You can see by their color that it was longer ago than it should have been, but I won’t detail the computer troubles that led to this late posting.)

Michael says that the one on the left is 12 feet 8 inches in circumference, and the other is 13 feet 4 inches in circumference. I find it remarkable that these female ginkgo trees have been allowed to live long enough to reach this size, but I also know that some campuses have strategies for dealing with the fall fruit (in my area, part of the strategy involves a gaggle of Korean women).

If you’d like to see these trees, Michael gives directions:

They are straight up the sidewalk from the sample gates.  They’ll be on your left near the top on the hill.  The sample gates are on Indiana Avenue across from Starbucks.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

I found a fascinating collection of ginkgo papers at Urban Forestry South Expo. Each is written by Kim D. Coder, professor of community forestry and arboriculture at the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia. The documents include:

• Ginkgo Seed Collection and Preparation
• Ginkgo: Eldest Tree Survivor
• Identification and Silvics of Ginkgo
• Selected Ginkgo Forms and Cultivars

I’ve found some interesting tidbits that I’ll share later.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The Casey Trees Endowment Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting trees in the United States capital, recently released its list of champion trees in Washington D. C. The list includes the ginkgo tree at Farragut Square, measured at 141 inches in circumference; 79 feet in crown spread; and 102 feet in height.

Links:

• List of largest trees by selected species in Washington, D. C.
• Map of the listed trees

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The National Register of Big Trees does not list any ginkgo trees on its list. Their reason?

To be eligible for the National Register of Big Trees, a species must be recognized as native or naturalized in the continental United States, including Alaska but not Hawaii.

Although one may ask for a tree species to be to the list, it seems unlikely that ginkgos will be added. Ginkgos, of course, are not native to the United States, and neither are they naturalized, according to their definition:

A naturalized tree is an introduced species that has become common and established itself as though wild, reproducing naturally and spreading.

Some state registries are less particular; a spot check reveals that Michigan and Connecticut list ginkgos on their state big tree registries. A former roommate from Seymour, Indiana told me that the ginkgo tree in her family’s backyard is the largest ginkgo in Indiana. At the moment, there’s no way for me to verify it (although it is indeed large, as I have seen it), since Indiana’s registry uses the same criteria as the national registry—no ginkgos.

Increasing ginkgo geekiness demands that I begin to search out these trees. Consider this a standing invitation for all readers to submit pictures and information of either confirmed or alleged “champion” ginkgos in their state, province, country, or other geographical entity.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Osan Air Base in South Korea, an American military installation, is the site of a ginkgo tree estimated to be more than seven hundred years old. A plaque near the tree reads:

Planted about 1280 A.D. by a rich man who had no descendants. He then had children, and annually celebrated a religious service to the tree in appreciation. Villagers called this “enheng-jengui,” or “jinko[sic]-tree mania.” Enheng Jengui is the name of the village today, and this part of the village became part of Osan Air Base in 1950.

The tree is located on the golf course of the air base.

Photo found here.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

This ginkgo, located in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was planted in 1762:

The ginkgo, a male tree, was one of the first of the species to have been planted in Britain, following the introduction of ginkgos via Europe in 1754. Its hardiness was unknown, so it was planted against the wall of the Great Stove glasshouse for protection. This was subsequently demolished in 1861, which left the ginkgo standing alone. It is a multistemmed tree, probably due to the transplanting and moving early in its life which may have accounted for it losing its growing point.

In 2002 it rightly became one of the 50 “Great British Trees” in a scheme run by the Tree Council to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

1800-year-old gingko at Dujiangyan Irrigation Project near Chengdu, China. Image courtesy of Al McLaine.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg