Plant of the Week | Ginkgo biloba

• The ginkgo biloba or maidenhair tree is a large deciduous shade tree. It’s considered a living fossil, with the earliest ginkgo fossil dating from 270 million years ago. The common name, maidenhair tree, was given because the leaves look like the leaves of the maidenhair fern. Ginkgo biloba is an excellent tree for the urban landscape because it adapts to many urban soil conditions (such as compaction) and tolerates heat, drought and salt spray. The medium green fan-shaped leaves feel thick and have raised, almost parallel veins. The leaves turn yellow in the fall and seem to drop all at once, creating a blanket of gold beneath the tree. It is dioecious (Greek for “two households”), meaning there are separate male and female plants. Female trees produce an orangish-tan fruit about the size of a large green grape with a soft, squishy outer layer surrounding a nut. Because the fruit has an unpleasant odor, many gardeners plant only male trees. Ginkgo trees can be found at the entry plaza and along the entrance driveway just north of the Trials Garden at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

— Barbara Arnold

Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens