GINKGOACEAE

Ginkgo.C Maidenhair Tree

Ginkgo biloba L. [Salisburia adiantifolia Smith]

HABIT.—A slender tree in youth, with slender, upright branches, becoming broader with age and forming a symmetrical, pyramidal crown; probably 60-80 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 2-4 feet.

LEAVES.—Clustered at the ends of short, spur-like shoots, or scattered alternately on the long terminal branches; simple; 2-5 inches broad; more or less fan-shaped; usually bilobed and irregularly crenate at the upper extremity; thin and leathery; glabrous, pale yellow-green on both sides; petioles long, slender; turning a clear, golden yellow before falling in autumn.

FLOWERS.—May, with the leaves; dioecious; the staminate in short-stalked, pendulous catkins, 1 to 1-1/2 inches long, yellow; the pistillate more or less erect on the shoot, long-stalked, consisting of 2 naked ovules, one of which usually aborts.

FRUIT.—Autumn; a more or less globose drupe, orange-yellow to green, about 1 inch in diameter, consisting of an acrid, foul-smelling pulp inclosing a smooth, whitish, somewhat flattened, almond-flavored nut.

WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud about 1/8 inch long, conical, smooth, light chestnut-brown; lateral buds divergent, usually only on rapid-growing shoots.

BARK.—Twigs gray-brown and smooth; thick, ash-gray and somewhat roughened on the trunk, becoming more or less fissured in old age.

WOOD.—Light, soft, weak, close-grained, yellow-white to light red-brown, with thin, lighter colored sapwood.

NOTES.—Origin in dispute, but probably a native of northern China. Extensively cultivated in China and Japan, where its fruit is esteemed. Easily propagated from seed. Thrives in deep, well-drained, rich soil. Practically free from insect and fungous attacks, and little harmed by the smoke of cities. Probably hardy throughout the southern half of the Lower Peninsula.