Ginkgos are among the most unique and ancient lineages of trees on earth. Ginkgos are easily recognizable in fossils from the Jurassic era, growing since that time largely unchanged in appearance. The genus ginkgo is today represented by a single species, native to East Asia. The species Ginkgo biloba is alone not only to in genus but also in its family, order and class, representing its extreme evolutionary isolation from other living species. Despite their appearance, ginkgos are essentially unrelated to other broadleafed trees, and only distantly related to conifers. Their closest relatives are the cycads, but it is a distant kinship.
Today, ginkgos are popular trees in virtually all temperate climates. They are beloved for their delicate appearance and showy fall color, which is remarkably consistent, even in warm climates like California. In Asia, many culturally important shrine trees belong to this species, some of which are thought to be thousands of years old. They are also beloved by urban foresters for their adaptability and lack of pest and disease problems. Pests and diseases often evolve new hosts by jumping from a current host to a related plant, but ginkgos are not even remotely related to any other living plant, making this divide nearly insurmountable.
However, like all trees, ginkgos do come with some drawbacks. They are very slow to establish, and often struggle to recover from physical damage and vandalism during this period. Female trees produce putrid-smelling fruit--though the nuts are prized for food and medicine in East Asia. Male clones are planted to avoid this problem, but a few females seem to pop up here and there anyway, perhaps because the trees are said to be able to change sex. The same distance from other plants that protects them from pests also provides little to no habitat for native invertebrates that form the base of the food chain, making these trees akin to a biological desert. Finally, while ginkgos do fairly well in our climate today, they struggle in hotter and drier climates, leaving them with questionable climate resilience.
Overall, while I think Ginkgo is a fascinating tree and I'm glad they are part of our urban forest, there are better trees we can be planting to create the most resilient and biodiverse urban forest.
Today, ginkgos are popular trees in virtually all temperate climates. They are beloved for their delicate appearance and showy fall color, which is remarkably consistent, even in warm climates like California. In Asia, many culturally important shrine trees belong to this species, some of which are thought to be thousands of years old. They are also beloved by urban foresters for their adaptability and lack of pest and disease problems. Pests and diseases often evolve new hosts by jumping from a current host to a related plant, but ginkgos are not even remotely related to any other living plant, making this divide nearly insurmountable.
However, like all trees, ginkgos do come with some drawbacks. They are very slow to establish, and often struggle to recover from physical damage and vandalism during this period. Female trees produce putrid-smelling fruit--though the nuts are prized for food and medicine in East Asia. Male clones are planted to avoid this problem, but a few females seem to pop up here and there anyway, perhaps because the trees are said to be able to change sex. The same distance from other plants that protects them from pests also provides little to no habitat for native invertebrates that form the base of the food chain, making these trees akin to a biological desert. Finally, while ginkgos do fairly well in our climate today, they struggle in hotter and drier climates, leaving them with questionable climate resilience.
Overall, while I think Ginkgo is a fascinating tree and I'm glad they are part of our urban forest, there are better trees we can be planting to create the most resilient and biodiverse urban forest.