Making a Splash
We are waiting a bit impatiently for our favorite splash of fall coloring, when Ginkgo biloba turns deep gold and the small fan-shaped leaves fall to carpet the ground beneath.
One of the loveliest ginkgoes stands in the elegant courtyard of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena--a most appropriate setting for a tree with its origins in China. The museum originally was the home and the site of the Oriental art collection of the late Grace Nicholson, and the tree was planted in her name in 1972. It is now the centerpiece of the authentic traditional Chinese garden that has since been installed in that tranquil setting.
“It is a living fossil,” according to James Bauml, plant taxonomist at the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum in Arcadia. Ginkgo fossils, dating back to dinosaur times 180 million years ago, have been found in North America, Europe and Asia. In more recent millennia, however, the tree grew only in China, and it was from China that it was taken to Japan, and then, in the 17th Century, to Holland and later to England. It was first reported in North America in the gardens of William Hamilton’s Philadelphia estate, grown from seed in 1784. The tree made its way to California during the Gold Rush, and was introduced to what is now the Arboretum by Lucky Baldwin around 1875.
The hardiness of the species has been a factor in its spread through warm as well as cold climates. There is one specimen in Sendai, Japan, thought to be 1,200 years old, reputedly planted as the memorial to the aunt and nurse of the emperor. Some of these ancient specimens develop curious growths, hanging like stalactites to the ground and re-rooting in complex patterns of branches, Bauml reported. “The ginkgo is immune to insects and disease, really tough and hardy,” he noted. It seems impervious to smog. The Chinese place the leaves in books to discourage silverfish, and use the wood for cabinets that are insect-free.
Fruit of the trees is harvested in the Orient, where the nuts are prized as a delicacy. But that is a matter of taste. Betty Green, veteran receptionist at the Pacific Asia Museum, tried preparing some and found herself suffering an allergic reaction from just handling the fruit. “The doctor said he was glad I didn’t eat one,” she recalled with a laugh. She confronted them again a couple of weeks ago when she was at a formal banquet in Taiwan. “Fortunately, there were lots of dishes, so no one noticed when I didn’t eat them.” Many gardeners prefer to grow only the male ginkgo, free of the fruit that, in addition to causing some people health problems, also generates a dreadful odor if left to rot on the ground.
In very cold climates the leaves, turned gold, fall suddenly and almost simultaneously. It is a somewhat slower process in milder climates, but still quicker and neater than for other deciduous trees. But the golden carpet on the ground is as much to be enjoyed as the brilliant leaves etched against a sunlit sky.
