Ginkgo Is The Oldest Tree On The Planet

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

This amazing tree appeared on Earth almost three hundred million years ago. Due to its original shape, its leaves cannot be confused with any other trees. Ginkgo fruits are eaten, and the beauty and slenderness of the crown is used in decorative plantings

Permian period

Scientists divide the formation of the earth's firmament and the development of living life on the planet into time periods during which certain events took place. One such segment is the Permian period, the last period of the Paleozoic era.

May the reader forgive me for such a digression, since the climate of this period is very similar to the modern climate with distinct climatic zones and growing aridity. It was in the Permian period that the Ginkgo tree appeared in nature, which managed to survive in the catastrophe that broke out by the end of the period.

If trees could speak

If Ginkgo could speak skillfully, it would perhaps tell a person the reason for the largest extinction of living organisms on the planet, which happened on Earth about 250 million years ago. This date ends the Permian geological period.

Two-thirds of terrestrial organisms disappeared from the face of the Earth, and about 10% of marine life survived. The catastrophe did not spare the vegetation either. By some miracle, the unpretentious tree managed to survive, the descendants of which received the hard-to-pronounce name "Ginkgo". They patiently swallow the dust and industrial waste of our industries, looking at us with a mute reproach with their fan-shaped leaves, similar to the wings of butterflies.

Dioecious trees

Ginkgo is a dioecious plant with a clear division of trees by sex. They grow up even longer than a person, and therefore, it is possible to determine the sex of a tree only after celebrating their thirtieth birthday, when they begin to bloom. They live for a long time, and therefore can afford a carefree life up to a mature age for a person. The most ancient centenarians have been identified by humans as 4000 years old.

It is interesting that females are shorter, squat, have a kind of intricate branching and a spreading crown. Males strive to rise, forming a pyramidal crown, which turns into a cylindrical crown as they mature.

In the fourth decade of life, male trees, simultaneously with leaves, show the world yellowish earring inflorescences. Single nondescript female flowers on long pedicels, sometimes growing in pairs for solidarity, appear in summer.

Sickening smell of seeds

Fertilized female flowers turn into seeds, which are carefully wrapped in a fleshy cover that makes them look like a green cherry plum, and when ripe, like yellow apricots. The seeds ripen more often after these "fruits" fall to the ground, emitting an unpleasant smell around them. This does not prevent the population from boiling and frying "apricots", eating them with appetite at lunch.

Decorative forms

Many decorative forms of wood have been developed, which adorn city parks and gardens. They differ in the shape of the crown, different colors of the leaves.

For example, a columnar shape

Ginkgo spiky great for planting along city streets. The variety"

Golden autumn »The crown is more spreading, and the autumn leaves become bright yellow. By the Ginkgo tree"

Motley »On the surface of the leaves there is a white-cream pattern.

Growing

Ginkgo loves sunny places. It tolerates any temperature, is not afraid of winds and pests, can breathe air polluted by industry and exhaust gases from automobiles. These qualities attract the attention of urban landscape designers.

Soils are preferable fertile, deep, drained, neutral or alkaline. High soil moisture is not an obstacle to growth.

True, the tree grows slowly, but it lives for a long time.

No pruning is required because the natural shape of the tree is beautiful and graceful.

Propagated by seeds, cuttings, grafting.