Ginkgo Biloba

The Ginkgo biloba is originally from China and is an ancient species that may date back as far as the late Permian period of the Paleozoic Era.  That’s about 260 to 251 million years ago – the age of the dinosaurs.  That is before the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.  This tree must be doing something right!

The Ginkgo is a gymnosperm, meaning that it has a seed that is not inside a fruit but is protected by a cone or fleshy seed coat.  Most gymnosperms are monoecious plants meaning that they have both the male and female parts on the same tree, but the Ginkgo is a dioecious tree and has both male and female forms on separate trees.

The tree is very slow growing with open branching.  Mine was planted about 5 years ago and is still only about 7 feet tall.  The Ginkgo will eventually reach 50 feet, though.  It prefers deep, moist organic soils which may be slowing mine down even further.  I have it planted by the pond where I tend to water a little extra, but it would probably still like a little more but it also doesn’t like wet feet.

The green in the spring is so bright that it almost hurts and in the fall the leaves turn to a gorgeous yellow.

Ginkgo also supposedly has health benefits of improving memory and brain function.  I don’t know, but I do like to add a leaf or two to herbal teas.