The Ginkgo Trees in Autumn
I have thousands and thousands of trees. Many were already well-established when I purchased the property, but the rest I've planted - in allées, in groves, as privacy hedges, around my pool, and in rows within my living maze. One type of tree, however, stands out this time every year - the ginkgo.
Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, and also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta. It is found in fossils dating back 270-million years. Native to China, the ginkgo tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history. Ginkgo trees have beautiful green leaves that turn a luminous golden-yellow in autumn. This time of year, the female trees also start dropping their fruits all over the ground. Ginkgo nuts are a delicacy in China, Japan, and Korea, and are prized for their flavor, nutritional value, and medicinal properties.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This year, I have so many ginkgo fruits. Female ginkgo trees produce tan-orange oval fruits that fall to the ground in October and November.
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- They start off high up in the tree like this before falling. This ginkgo is outside my Summer House garden and it is full of fruit.
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- And this ginkgo tree, another female, is the main focal point of my sunken garden. It is about 250 years old.
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- In June, it’s filled with beautiful bright green foliage.
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- In October, it is a gorgeous golden yellow. The ginkgo biloba is one of the most distinct and beautiful of all deciduous trees. It prefers a minimum of four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day. The ginkgo has a cone-like shape when young, and becomes irregularly rounded as it ages.
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- Here are some leaves as they started to change color. The leaves are unusually fan-shaped, up to three inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze.
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- And now, the tree is bare. Typically, on one day after the hard frost sweeps down the east coast, this ginkgo, along with others at my farm and countless more in the area, drops its leaves, but with such mild temperatures this autumn, the “great fall” seems less dramatic.
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- The leaves fall all over the boxwood hedges…
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- … and in the garden beds, covering the entire area in yellow.
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- The ginkgo leaves are easy to identify.
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- They are often deeply grooved in the middle of the leaf, producing two distinct lobes, hence the name Ginkgo biloba, meaning two lobes.
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- Mixed with the fallen leaves is a group of newly fallen ginkgo tree fruits. The most noticeable thing about these is the smell – it is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.
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- Inside is a single hard-shelled seed enclosing an edible kernel. The kernels are often roasted and used in Asian cuisines.
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- The ginkgo seeds contain urushiol, which is the same chemical that causes poison oak, ivy, and sumac, so always wear gloves and protect your skin whenever handling the fruit.
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- Here is a closer look at the fruit and seed. It is small and fleshy – about the size of a small jujube, or Chinese date.
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- Ginkgo trees are dioecious, meaning that male and female reproductive parts develop on separate plants. Ginkgo trees typically reach sexual maturity around 20 to 30 years old. Male trees do not drop fruit. This young ginkgo tree is in the northeast corner of my herbaceous peony bed. It has lost most of its leaves.
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- This tree is in a field east of my chicken coops and off a carriage road to my run-in paddock. It still has many leaves left on its branches.
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- This ginkgo is outside my raised bed vegetable garden. It is the first to lose its leaves here at the farm.
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- These are my newest ginkgo trees, six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees, which I planted by my pool last May. They too have lost lots, but not all, of their leaves.
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- In September, I gathered the new ginkgo seedlings that started growing near their parent tree outside my Summer House. I repotted them so they could be nurtured in one of my greenhouses until they are transplanted in more permanent locations. It’s a cycle of growth, fruiting, abscission of leaves, and then dormancy for the mighty ginkgo.
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