Home / Education and Outreach / Interpretative Signs / Ginkgo biloba
Ginkgo biloba
Ginkgo biloba is the only living species of an ancient gymnosperm lineage, the Ginkgoopsida, which dates from 270 million years ago (the Jurassic).
Highly revered in its native Asia and cultivated around temples, ginkgo is nearly extinct in the wild. Plants are dioecious (separate female and male), and female trees produce edible gametophytes known as ginkgo nuts. These are surrounded by a fleshy covering, which putrifies when ripe and smells like rancid butter. Ginkgo extracts are valued in traditional medicine for reducing memory loss and slowing aging, and in western medicine in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. Ginkgo is also known as "maidenhair tree", because its leaves resemble the fronds of maidenhair fern (Adiantum).
