Ginkgo
biloba L.
Standardized Common
Name: Ginkgo
Other Common Names: Kew Tree, Maidenhair
Tree
Family: Ginkgoaceae
Taxonomy: There is only one
species in the genus Ginkgo (for which Salisburia is a synonym).
A gymnosperm and a living fossil, it is the only surviving species in its
family, order, class, and division (a taxonomic unit equivalent in rank to the
whole of the flowering plants). It is native to China, but is now found only in
cultivation and appears to be extinct in the wild.
Description: Trees to 40 m tall
and 4 m in diameter. Crown ovoid to obovoid, asymmetric. Long shoots and short
spurs present, the latter to 3 cm long. Bark gray, with flattened ridges.
Leaves deciduous, alternate, light to medium green fading to yellow,
fan-shaped, broader than long, (2–)5–12(–20) cm broad; base cuneate; apex
truncate with a central notch to deeply cleft; young leaves sometimes slightly
pubescent; venation dichotomously branching, appearing parallel; petioles usually
longer than blade, upper surface grooved, with tuft of hairs at the base.
Plants dioecious. Staminate cones catkinlike, without bracts. Ovules borne in
pairs on long stalks. Seeds to 3.5 cm long, ellipsoid, with fleshy, smelly
outer layer, orange and glaucous with silvered appearance (hence the Chinese
name yin-xing, “silver apricot”).
Parts
in Commerce:
Leaves
Identification:
- Leaves
fan-shaped, (2–)5–12(–20) cm broad, with tapering cuneate base
- Center of apex
notched or more or less cleft and dividing blade into distinct lobes
- Venation looks
parallel, branching dichotomously
- Blade hairless
or with few small hairs
- Petiole long,
with upper surface grooved
Reference:
Fu
L, Li N, Mill RR. Ginkgoaceae. In: Wu Z-Y, Raven PH, eds. Flora of China, vol. 4.
Beijing: Science Press and St. Louis, MO: Missouri Botanical Garden Press;
1999:8.
