16. Ginkgo

Tree Tour

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The Burke Museum displays fossil Ginkgo leaves 48 million years old which look like the ones before you. This tree of ancient lineage is the oldest unchanged tree species on the planet, so is aptly called Golden Fossil tree (it turns pure yellow-gold in fall). The two ginkgos by the Aerospace and Engineering building are still gangly, youthful, and have not yet flowered. Male ginkgo catkins droop conspicuously in April; female trees have tiny green flowers that give rise to orange, plumlike fruit ripe in October. Within the smelly fruit is an edible nut, much prized in the tree's native China.

Pictured below: Map showing the geographical range of ginkgo.

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