As Amazing as Beautiful

 

The Ginkgo trees shown here are in our neighbor, The Colonel's yard.

The trees are quite beautiful, and I have photographed them often. I have been waiting for a week for them to ready this year. With today's stormy weather, I decided I should do my photos before the leaves were knocked off the trees. 

I did a bit of research this morning and learned some very interesting facts about this species. Did you know they are living fossils? The species is over 270 million years old, according to fossil records. They were 

originally all across North America, but were heavily impacted by the Ice Age and "space impact",

(the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs.)

 

They were pretty much limited to Eastern China. Buddhist monks cultivated the trees and grew them for their temples. Around 800 AD, the monks brought the trees to Japan. In the 1600's a German named Englebert Kaempfer saw the trees in Japan, and brought them to Europe.

We have a female Ginkgo in our garden. It is not my favorite tree. The females produce seeds that are inside soft pods. They are coated with butyric acid, and really stink.
Anyhow, a bit of tree history for you. Really quite special trees.