Ginkgo, Maidenhair Tree      GINK-go bi-LO-ba

• Deciduous tree, 50+ ft (15+ m), usually pyramidal, excurrent (dominant main leader), but variable.   Leaves alternate, simple, fan-shaped, 3-7.5 cm long and wide, in clusters of 3-5 per spur or alternate on long shoots.   Dioecious - male and female trees.  "Fruit" on female plants is actually a naked seed (gymnosperm), plum-shaped (ca. 2.5 cm diam.), green then tan or orange, extremely messy and malodorous.  (In their 1954 botany text, Fuller & Tippo indicate that one botanist described the fruit smell in more vernacular terms, i.e., like "raw dog vomit".)  Sometime fruit is set without pollination.  Twenty or more years before a seedling flowers and sets fruit.  Seedless (male) cultivars available, see below.
• Sun. Transplants easily.  Prefers sandy, deep, moderately moist soil but grows in almost any situation.  A durable tree for difficult landscape situations, in addition some cultivars can be espaliered or used in bonsai.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3     Native to eastern China, long cultivated.  Available male selections include: ‘Autumn Gold’, ‘Lakeview’, ‘Magyar’, Princeton Sentry®, and Shangri-la®
• Ginkgo: from the Chinese yin-kuo, silver apricot.   biloba: two lobed, leaves sometimes incised or divided.
• Corvallis: west side of Central Park.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: east and south of Wiegand and west of Withycombe.