![\"green](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my\/my-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1581\/2014\/11\/ginkgo-green-leaf.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe common name of the ginkgo is “maidenhair tree”.\u00a0 The tree gets this name because of the unusual branching vein pattern on its leaves (a pattern shared by the leaves of the maidenhair fern<\/a>).<\/p>\n The leaves of ginkgoes come off of the branches from short spur shoots.\u00a0 When seen from a distance, this sometimes gives an overall effect that makes the branches look like pipecleaners coming out of the trunk.<\/p>\n One surprising thing about the leaves of the ginkgo is that it has leaves at all!\u00a0 Ginkgos are a kind of gymnosperm, a group of plants whose members more commonly have needles than large leaves.\u00a0 But the distinguishing feature of this group is not the kind of leaf, but rather that its seeds develop within cones and not from flowers.\u00a0 Unlike most trees, individual ginkgo trees are either male or female.\u00a0 If you look closely at a female ginkgo tree in the spring, instead of flowers you may see something that looks like this:<\/p>\n The tiny, sticky droplets on the receptive female cone catch pollen blown by the wind from a male tree.\u00a0 As the summer progresses, these tiny cones develop into larger, fleshy cones that contain a single seed.\u00a0 If you search under a female ginkgo this time of year, you can find the female cones, which look like this:<\/p>\n The most noticeable thing about these female cones is their smell.\u00a0 It has been described in various ways, but the closes thing that comes to my mind is vomit.\u00a0 If you walk by a female ginkgo tree this time of year, the stench is very disagreeable.\u00a0 For this reason, it is pretty unusual to find female ginkgo trees since their owners usually cut them down as soon as the trees are old enough for their sex to be apparent.\u00a0 Although there are many ginkgo trees in the arboretum, there are only two places where you can find female ginkgoes.\u00a0 One is by the Owen Graduate School of Management<\/a> and another is between Cole Hall and the Beta Theta Pi house on the corner of West Side Row and Vanderbilt Place<\/a>.\u00a0 There used to be a third tree on Peabody Campus<\/a>, but alas, it was cut down due to complaints of people who worked in the neighboring buildings.\u00a0 Interestingly, ginkgo seeds are a delicacy in Chinese and Japanese cuisine, although they can cause illness if eaten in large quantities over a long period of time.\u00a0 Ginkgo biloba<\/em> is also well known as an herbal supplement, although its medicinal properties are still unclear.<\/p>\n Ginkgoes are the quintessential survivors.\u00a0 They were known to westerners only by fossils until 1691 when Engelbert Kaempfer saw them growing in a Buddhist monastery in Japan.\u00a0 It has been believed that they may have been extinct in the wild and lived only in cultivation on temple grounds; however, recent research suggests that some populations in China may be native.\u00a0 Ginkgo biloba<\/em> is the only surviving species in its entire phylum, order, class, family and genus, so it really is a living fossil of sorts. Six ginkgo trees were among the few living things to survive the atomic bomb explosion at Hiroshima<\/a>.\u00a0 Although charred by the explosion, they sprouted and now serve as a symbol of hope.<\/p>\n Bishop Charles Galloway was president of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust from 1905 to 1909.\u00a0 Chancellor Kirkland remarked after his death<\/a>: “His education was not finished in college, as is the education of some young men; it was merely begun there.\u00a0 It was continued with him by constant reading and study, by travel throughout the whole civilized world, by wide contact with men of every type and every profession, and by definite participation in great enterprises of important character.”\u00a0 One of these great enterprises was bringing the first ginkgo to Vanderbilt from Asia<\/a>. This tree<\/a>, the largest ginkgo in the arboretum, is still growing near Kirkland Hall and has a diameter of 1 meter (3 feet).<\/p>\n In the fall, ginkgo leaves turn a beautiful yellow. As they fall to the ground, they create a yellow carpet on the ground underneath the tree.<\/p>\n One morning last November as I was walking to work, I came across Marie McEntire looking at a row of ginkgoes near the Divinity School.\u00a0 Since I’m always curious to know why people are interested in trees of the arboretum, I asked her what she was looking at.\u00a0 She replied that she was trying to decide if those ginkgoes were actually losing their leaves in unison.\u00a0 I said that I’d never heard that they did that.\u00a0 She referred me to a Howard Nemerov poem called “The Consent” that contains the line: “the ginkgo trees that stand along the walk drop all their leaves in one consent”.\u00a0 (See this web page<\/a> for the entire poem.)\u00a0 So far we haven’t heard of any scientific evidence showing that ginkgoes actually follow some signal that allows them to drop all of their leaves at once.\u00a0 However, in a later conversation with a student, the student remarked that she loved ginkgoes because of the way that they all dropped their leaves at once.\u00a0 She said that she had observed it on the ginkgoes on her street!<\/p>\n So keep your eyes on the ginkgoes this fall and decide for yourself.\u00a0 If you enjoy poetry, here is another poem by Eve Merriam<\/a> about ginkgoes as survivors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Addendum on November 28<\/strong><\/p>\n I asked Jonathan Ertelt, the greenhouse manager for the Biological Sciences department to think about some ideas for a guest blog post.\u00a0 He mentioned either writing about ginkgoes or dawn redwoods.\u00a0 I suggested dawn redwoods since I had recently written this post.\u00a0 However, I got an interesting note from him that I’ll post here:<\/p>\n “Mentioning to Dr. Baskauf the other day that I had two tree essays coming together in my mind, and that one was about Ginkgoes, he responded that I should likely focus on the second one since he had just written up one pretty complete on that most interesting leaf-bearing gymnosperm. Curious as to whether or not \u201cmy take\u201d on this tree had been dealt with, I immediately went to the site and read his piece.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n