Illustrated by Mieke Boecker
An iconic tree to say the least, ginkgo is one of the most interesting trees alive today. It’s the only living representative if an ancient lineage that got its start about 290 million years ago, and for all intents and purposes the tree we see today hasn’t changed for the last 170 million years. It’s a gymnosperm, botanically more closely related to the conifers and the cycads than the broadleaf trees, even though it itself has broad leaves. It has a single, giant seed that matures in the fall and smells strongly of vomit as it decays.
Illustrated by Mieke Boecker
An iconic tree to say the least, ginkgo is one of the most interesting trees alive today. It’s the only living representative if an ancient lineage that got its start about 290 million years ago, and for all intents and purposes the tree we see today hasn’t changed for the last 170 million years. It’s a gymnosperm, botanically more closely related to the conifers and the cycads than the broadleaf trees, even though it itself has broad leaves. It has a single, giant seed that matures in the fall and smells strongly of vomit as it decays.