Post by macmex on Nov 4, 2022 12:27:09 GMT -6
Yesterday I visited a friend in the hospital, in Tulsa. As I was walking around, trying to find my way in, I noticed they had a good number of ginko trees planted along the street and sidewalk. Ginko is renowned for being tolerant of urban conditions and, additionally, it is quite ornamental.
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay
I love ginko trees and remember they had them growing around the first elementary school I attended. Also, for years I purchased and took ginko extract, to help my memory. (I think it actually does help.)
Seeing these trees also jogged my memory, back to a time in my youth, when Freehold, NJ, a nearby town, planted many of these trees along their streets, down town. Now, one has to hand it to this community, they did choose a very fine tree for the purpose. Ginko is beautiful and well suited for planting along sidewalks. There was a catch however. Ginko, like some other plants, has male trees and female trees. Male trees produce flowers and pollen. Female trees produce flowers and fruit. Most nurseries sell only male trees. You see, the fruit has an unpleasant odor. I've heard it described as smelling a bit like "poop." Freehold must have gotten a good deal on a bundle of trees consisting of both male AND female trees. In a few years folk were complaining about the smelly messy fruit falling from the trees. I don't know what they did about it. Personally, I'd just clean it up and let the trees grown. Additionally, there were a fair number of Asian people in the community who knew how to use these fruit for food. They set about collecting them. Unfortunately, I never learned how they used them
Anyway, when I was leaving I walked down a different street and came across a female ginko tree! This brought back memories. I couldn't resist, either, I picked up a handful of fruit. I want to try growing some!
I once read that seed grown ginko trees have better roots. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking of doing.
Two other tidbits about ginko trees:
1) They can grow quite large. I've seen them out East, probably 60' tall and very stately.
2) They're exceedingly resilient. There are ginko trees which survived the bombing of Hiroshima, coming back from the roots.
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay
I love ginko trees and remember they had them growing around the first elementary school I attended. Also, for years I purchased and took ginko extract, to help my memory. (I think it actually does help.)
Seeing these trees also jogged my memory, back to a time in my youth, when Freehold, NJ, a nearby town, planted many of these trees along their streets, down town. Now, one has to hand it to this community, they did choose a very fine tree for the purpose. Ginko is beautiful and well suited for planting along sidewalks. There was a catch however. Ginko, like some other plants, has male trees and female trees. Male trees produce flowers and pollen. Female trees produce flowers and fruit. Most nurseries sell only male trees. You see, the fruit has an unpleasant odor. I've heard it described as smelling a bit like "poop." Freehold must have gotten a good deal on a bundle of trees consisting of both male AND female trees. In a few years folk were complaining about the smelly messy fruit falling from the trees. I don't know what they did about it. Personally, I'd just clean it up and let the trees grown. Additionally, there were a fair number of Asian people in the community who knew how to use these fruit for food. They set about collecting them. Unfortunately, I never learned how they used them
Anyway, when I was leaving I walked down a different street and came across a female ginko tree! This brought back memories. I couldn't resist, either, I picked up a handful of fruit. I want to try growing some!
I once read that seed grown ginko trees have better roots. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking of doing.
Two other tidbits about ginko trees:
1) They can grow quite large. I've seen them out East, probably 60' tall and very stately.
2) They're exceedingly resilient. There are ginko trees which survived the bombing of Hiroshima, coming back from the roots.