Ginkgo Dreams - Celebrating Ginkgo

Even if the reasons are good, it’s still sad to hear about the loss of a ginkgo tree:

Despite a homeowner’s pleas, a 50-year-old ginkgo tree in the path of a $5 million Roeland Park stormwater project will be removed. The Roeland Park City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday night to proceed with the condemnation for the project designed to alleviate flooding…

However, if the city actually follows through with this plan, it won’t be so bad:

The city is considering planting several Ginkgo trees, each 3 inches in diameter, in municipal parks to help compensate for the loss of the tree.

From The Kansas City Star.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Most autumns bring at least one news article on the beauty and uniqueness of ginkgo trees. In one from The Clarion-Ledger, Norman Winter poses a pertinent question:

It was brought to the United States in 1784 from Asia, but ginkgo fossils have been found in America. For a good debate, I love to pose the question: if ginkgo fossils have been found in America, does this not mean it’s native?

You wouldn’t find much of a market here in the United States selling ginkgo nuts as a school fundraiser, but it’s a different story in Japan:

Students at Habu Primary School in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, are maintaining a tradition of gathering nuts from a tall gingko tree in the school yard to sell for charity. The Gingko Nuts Fund of the school, where 91 pupils study, is an endeavor dating back more than 30 years. Vice Principal Hiroaki Hara said the charitable work, no matter how small, helps students broaden their horizons. “With our fund, we hope we can support those in need,” he said. “Also, we hope the children become convinced of their ability to help.” The 15-meter-tall tree drops nuts between September and December. The nuts smell and cause people slip on them if left on the ground. From about 7:30 a.m. to the start of classes each morning, an average of 20 pupils from all grades gather around the tree to pick up the nuts. (via the Yomiuri Shimbun.)

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Down in New Zealand these days it’s fall, and that means only one thing for female ginkgo trees and those unlucky enough to be in their vicinity: smelly nuts. Seems everyone around in Te Awamtu agrees that the female trees need to go, but so far no one’s actually made the decision.

Pastors Pam and Ariki Ashford, of the Assembly of God, said they had battled with the council to get rid of the gingko tree outside their church for the past 15 years. “When you stand in one and squash one it smells like dog spew,” Mrs Ashford said. Mr Ashford said he’d noticed many pedestrians, including school children, preferring to walk on the road rather than through the whiffy fruit.

Via Waikato Times.

Meanwhile, at Logan International Airport in Boston, MA, USA, officials are very focused:

Logan’s $10 million landscaping plan relies on thousands of trees, flowers, and bushes that don’t draw insects. It pays attention to the smallest detail to balance appearance and safety. The gingko trees had to be all male, because females drop seeded stinkbombs that attract birds and bugs. Plantings shunned certain shades of red and violet because they attract Japanese beetles. Roses, too.

Via Boston Globe.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The staff here at Ginkgo Dreams has (since there’s only one of me) always had a nose for ginkgo-related news, which is why it’s surprising that it took me so long to develop the Weekly Ginkgo News Roundup.

Through WGNR I intend to present the latest in ginkgo-related news. Some weeks will be fuller than others; I can already tell you that this week’s Roundup is on the short side, but the stories have a definite ginkgo scent.

Expect to see it each Thursday. Or not, if there isn’t any.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

From Peter Baniak of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

What is that smell? Did someone—oh, wait, has late October passed already?

Well then, that smell would be from the tree that looms over my back yard.

We have a ginkgo tree, a beautiful, gigantic ginkgo tree, complete with a swing hanging from one of her sturdy branches and shade garden underneath. And she is woman—smell her roar.

You see, the female ginkgoes are the ones that drop mounds of fruit this time of year. The fruit is small—a little smaller than a golf ball—and looks like a miniature apricot. Inside is a white nut that the squirrels go ga-ga for. Sound charming?

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The emerald ash borer has made inroads in several Midwest states. Here in Michigan, billboards and news reports advise us not to take firewood with us when we go camping, but to purchase it at the camp site, in order to avoid inadvertantly transporting the insect. Thousands of ash trees have been cut down when infestations are discovered.

Howell, Michigan is one city that is selling trees to residents who lost trees to the ash borer. The Ann Arbor News reports that ginkgo trees are one of the varieties that are recommended as replacement trees:

Under a special incentive program underwritten by the DTE Energy Foundation, 1,600 trees of various species will be made available in the spring for a reduced cost to homeowners.

The city of Howell and other partners will have 200 landscape-quality trees in seven-gallon containers for purchase by residents for approximately $25. Available species include sugar maple, red maple, gingko, tulip tree, red oak and littleleaf linden. Distribution will be in April 2007. Agencies and organizations partnering to make the ROOT Program possible, in addition to the DNR, MDA and DTE Energy Foundation include the USDA Forest Service and Ray Wiegand’s Nursery.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

This is the second recent local (to me) story about ginkgo trees being removed. The first was due to road construction, but this one is everyone’s favorite reason to cut down a ginkgo tree:

Crews were out in downtown Mishawaka on Wednesday replacing 10 of the city’s female ginkgo trees with 10 male trees.

The problem with the female trees is that they produce fruit that looks like berries. Webster’s New World College Dictionary calls the fruit “foul-smelling.”

Honestly, did the reporter actually need to fall back on a dictionary definition to know that ginkgo nuts smell like dog poop?

Local businessman Mike Richard had a more colorful description:

“Thank God we’re getting rid of the Roman vomitorium,” he said. “I’ve wanted those things gone from downtown for years.”

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

In Charleston, West Virginia, at least:

Several of Charleston’s beloved ginkgo trees—the smelly ones, at least—got the ax this week.

Tree trimmers for the city were scouring downtown streets Thursday looking for female ginkgos that have started bearing seeds. The trees flower, shed and the fruit-like seeds drop down. They ripen quickly and eventually start to reek.

By early Thursday afternoon, workers for Charleston’s Public Grounds division had chopped down five female ginkgos on Virginia Street, Summers Street and Kanawha Boulevard. They were looking for more to cut down.

The female trees most likely will be replaced later this year with male ginkgos that don’t produce seeds.

Read the rest at the Charleston Daily Mail.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

What is that smell? Did someone step on a doggy land mine on their way inside? Did one of the kids get sick in the corner and not tell anyone? Did someone ... oh, wait, is it late October already?

Well then, that smell would be from the tree that looms over my back yard.

We have a ginkgo tree, a beautiful, gigantic ginkgo tree, complete with a swing hanging from one of her sturdy branches and shade garden underneath. And she is woman—smell her roar.

You see, the female ginkgoes are the ones that drop mounds of fruit this time of year. The fruit is small—a little smaller than a golf ball—and looks like a miniature apricot. Inside is a white nut that the squirrels go ga-ga for. Sound charming?

Peter Baniak, of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Read the rest on your own.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

As fall foliage peaks, Ginkgo biloba trees stand out in magnificent shining glory, but only for a few days. You can recognize ginkgoes, or “maidenhair trees,” by their distinctive two-lobed fan-shaped leaves, which remain supple and flat after changing to a brilliant school-bus yellow—then, a few days later, fall almost all at once to cover the ground in gold.

Don’t let the brief period between when the leaves turn color and then fall fool you into thinking ginkgoes are short-lived: They are actually living fossils dating back to beyond the time of the dinosaurs.

Susan Smith-Durisek, of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Read the rest on your own.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Nancy L. Krussel writes about that day in autumn when magic strikes:

The weather had been freezing at night, but the days were bright and sunny. I was sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.

I glanced out the window and thought it was snowing. Then I realized it was the leaves of my ginkgo tree falling. I leaned over and peered out the window thinking that a bird or animal was up in the tree knocking the leaves off. But there were no birds or squirrels.

All of a sudden I realized that the tree was dropping its leaves - all at once - on its own. I jumped up and ran outside. It was a magnificent sight.

I stood there with my mouth open as I watched the leaves fall to the ground. It was a shower of gold. Beautiful little fans were gently flitting and floating to the ground. Some were twirling, and others fell slowly as though they were golden snowflakes.

Read the rest on your own.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

During road construction, a homeowner finds out how much her ginkgo tree is worth:

Across the street from Westenbarger is a 57-year-old ginkgo tree with branches that tower over a row of power lines. The tree is in the right of way and is scheduled to be cut down as part of the planned construction, much to the chagrin of the property owner, Vicky Lee Carney.

The ginkgo, a tree with fan-shaped leaves long cultivated in Asia, is 92 inches in diameter.

Carney, 49, said she hired an arborist from Purdue to evaluate the tree. He estimated it to be worth $71,000, she said.

Carney said she initially doubted the arborist’s estimate. Her house is worth $64,000. But he told her there are a lot of factors that figure into it. “It blocks the wind, it shades our house, he just went on and on and on,” she said.

From the Evansville Courier and Press.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

In South Bend, Indiana (via the South Bend Tribune), a ginkgo is among the trees that gave their lives for new road construction:

The Gallays are losing their horseshoe driveway and are afraid of water draining off the road and pollution from passing traffic, which promises to increase in the future.

They and other neighbors also are distressed by the old-growth trees that have been lost to the construction.

Fegaras said InDOT follows federal highway guidelines regarding the acquisition and clearing of the right-of-way.

“There is not a set rule for acquiring right-of-way,’’ she said. ‘Each parcel is considered individually based on the road design in that particular area.’‘

“I had a beautiful gingko tree,’’ Pamela Connor said.

Tanya Barnett, who lives with three generations of her family just west of Capital Avenue, said they lost both pine and deciduous trees from their front yard. The trees served to filter out the lights and the smells from passing traffic, she said. They also provided shade to help cool the house.

“They’ve changed the whole dynamic of the neighborhood,’’ she said.

The Gallays have a different tree issue. A large pine tree in their front hard was not cut down, but some lower branches were hacked off on the side that faces Day Road. The pruning left the tree with an unbalanced appearance.

“That griped me,’’ Virginia Gallay said.

Losing their driveway was bad enough, she said, “but chopping the tree, that was uncalled for.’‘

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The Villager has more on the lopped ginkgo trees in New York, including the photo above.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

From the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

Vandals struck a number of young trees in the village including one with deep historic roots.

In 2000, the Denmark VFW post obtained a tree grown from the seeds of other trees that stood in the backyard of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s boyhood home.

A special ceremony was held to signify the planting of that tree, which was then dedicated to the veterans who served in World War II.

Last week vandals snapped the tree in half and vandalized a number of other ginkgo trees in the Denmark Memorial Park area.

“That’s a special tree, and it’s irreplaceable,” village Administrator Gordon Ellis said. “It was a tribute to World War II. Now it’s gone.”

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Normally, the billboard advertising a “mobile multimedia and messaging” company called Helio would have been hard to miss. Large in scale, intriguing in message, it bore the catchphrase “Don’t call it a phone” and was plastered across the scaffolding that surrounds a brown brick building called the Cheyney on 23rd Street near Eighth Avenue.

There was just one problem. Four large ginkgo trees planted by the city were blocking much of the advertisement. And on July 16, less than a week after the billboard went up, the tops of all four trees were mysteriously lopped off.

Read the rest at The New York Times.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

From China Daily:

Experts have started injecting nutrient-containing microelements like nitrogen and phosphorus into a 200-year-old ginkgo in the front of the former residence of Guo Moruo (1892-1978), a Chinese scholar and one of the leading writers of 20th-century China.

Following days of hot weather in Chongqing Municipality, over half of the tree’s branches and leaves dried and rotted for the lack of microelements. Actually, it is suffering from heatstroke, they say.

They are confident that the tree can be vitalized if it is rescued in time and treated properly.

I’m no tree scientist, but does this kind of thing really work?

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

The ginkgo tree, already distinguished for its medicinal properties and ancient history, has another claim to fame. Its cells are home to an alga, a guest no other tree is known to host. Moreover, this interloper exists in ginkgo trees throughout the world, suggesting a long-standing, albeit enigmatic, partnership.

A common ornamental tree planted along sidewalks and in gardens throughout the world, Ginkgo biloba—also called the maidenhair tree—has been considered a source of herbal medicine for millennia. During the 1990s, several studies showed the extracts helped improve memory in patients with dementia (ScienceNOW, 30 May). And today, ginkgo is a popular remedy sold not just for memory loss but also for ailments ranging from depression to hemorrhoids.

Read the rest at ScienceNOW.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Propaganda infiltrates a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) news article about a heroic ginkgo tree:

There is some 720 years old hero gingko tree in Ichon Township of Ichon County, Kangwon Province of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It, planted in 1282, has been called “hero gingko tree” from the period of the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953).

During the war, people there and military transport vehicles used to shelter themselves beneath the tree from the U.S. air raids.

One day in August Juche 41 (1952), a U.S. fighter spotted a truck of the Korean People’s Army hidden under the tree and attempted to attack it. But the fighter ran into the tree to be crashed. From then on, the people of Ichon have called the tree “hero gingko tree.”

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Julie Monson writes:

Of the trees we planted in our new garden eight years ago - mayten, coast live oak, Japanese maple and vine maple, purple-leafed plum, Arbutus ‘Marina’, Austrian black pine and dogwood - one of my favorites (and hardiest) is Ginkgo biloba.

It is now a graceful 25-foot high tree, with a spread of its lower branches to about 15 feet. It is stunning, especially in the fall, when its fan-shaped green leaves turn brilliant yellow and shiver on their slender stems. The leaves tend to fall suddenly, creating a golden carpet surrounding the base of the tree.

Recently, I was given a second gingko, now only 5 feet tall, which I planted near its cousin, with the expectation that as they mature their golden plumage might mingle for a spectacular effect. At the end of the driveway near our garage, these two special trees signal a “welcome home,” whether I’m returning from a local errand or a six-week trip.

Gingko biloba has a fascinating history, beginning with a fossil record as early as 270 million years ago. It was widely distributed 180 million years ago, and is therefore a relic of another epoch. Native to China, it was discovered in Japan and taken to Belgium in about 1727 by Engelbert Kaempfer, a German naturalist with the Dutch East India Company. He introduced gingko into European cultivation at the Botanic Garden of Utrecht.

Read the rest at the Marin Independent Journal.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg

Were I in Selma, Alabama, I’d check out the ginkgo trees:

Brought here by a Chinese missionary in 1879, Selma’s first Gingko tree was planted in the courtyard of a cotton warehouse at Lawrence Street and Water Avenue. The tree grew to a hundred feet in height and as it grew, it became famous, making the popular “Strange As It May Seem” nationally syndicated column several decades ago.

During its years in the courtyard of Bernard Yaretzky’s cotton office, the tree produced a number of small seedlings, which were successfully transplanted all over Selma. Every Gingko in Selma has its origin in that tree.

Via The Selma Times-Journal.

Posted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg