Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba)

A deciduous tree from the Gingko Family (Ginkgoaceae)

Maidenhair Tree (also commonly known as Ginkgo) is normally found only in urban areas of Ohio, since it is not a native tree and usually does not escape from cultivation. It forms a massive and majestic shade tree with age, and is very adaptable to harsh sites, especially those with dry, poor soils. It grows up to 80 feet tall by 60 feet wide when found in the open, with a slow to medium growth rate. Its shape is upright pyramidal and sparsely branched when young, becoming upright spreading and very dense at maturity. Its lower branches become pendulous with age, especially those of the female trees that have repeatedly borne heavy crops of fruits.

Maidenhair Tree was discovered by explorers visiting temples in southeastern China and Japan several hundred years ago. It was brought back to Europe and North America where it has flourished ever since. It is the only known surviving member of the Ginkgo Family, being a "living fossil" that is reportedly over 150 million years old. As a gymnosperm (actually having a "naked seed", rather than a true fruit), Maidenhair Tree is distantly related to the Firs, Larches, Spruces, Pines, Hemlocks, and Bald Cypress, among others..

Planting Requirements - Maidenhair Tree is very adaptable to a wide range of optimum and harsh growing conditions. It prefers moist, well-drained, sandy to fertile soils of variable pH, but adapts to almost any soil and moisture condition, except for wet soils, which it will not tolerate. However, it needs attention during the first year of transplanting, as its young root system may be quite sparse, and need supplemental water during times of drought. It also tolerates salt spray and salt deposition to its surrounding soil in winter, making it a favorite street tree for its year-round urban tolerance, including air pollution and dust. However, this tree should be reserved for large open spaces where it is not crowded, such as in parks, cemeteries, and commercial sites. It grows in full sun to partial sun, and is found in zones 4 to 8.

Potential Problems - Maidenhair Tree is one of the most pest and pathogen-free trees available, exhibiting virtually no problems once established. Its wood is lightweight yet flexible in high winds, tolerates heavy loads of fruit during the growing season (on female trees), and ice loads during the winter. Its primary drawbacks are getting too large in confined spaces with maturity, and the rancid odor emitted by the fruits from female trees in early autumn.

Leaf Identification Features

Leaves of Maidenhair Tree are arranged in two ways along the stout twigs and branches. On first-year growth, they are alternate along the straight twigs.

On second-year and subsequent growth, they occur in a clustered fashion solely at the tips of "spur shoots", which are extremely short offshoots from the main branch. The specific epithet of "biloba" refers to the fact that some of the fan-shaped leaves have a central slit, creating two lobes to the leaf blade. Others have this feature absent, or have two slits creating three lobes. However, all leaves have a close arrangement of many parallel veins that branch once in the leaf blade, unlike any other tree. This gives the fan-shaped leaves a ribbed structure upon close inspection, like a "maiden's hair". In some years, autumn color is exceptional, but often it is not.

Other Identification Features

Male flowers and female flowers occur on separate trees of Maidenhair Tree in early to mid spring (making this a dioecious species). Both types of flowers occur during leaf emergence and often go unnoticed, since they are small and do not have petals.

Light-green fruits hang in clusters from the spur shoots of female trees of Maidenhair Tree, and mature in late summer and early autumn to a tan to faded orange-yellow color, then fall to the ground and develop a shriveled texture. In the process of over-ripening and fermentation on the ground, a profuse rancid butter odor and sticky mess permeates the area around female trees. Female trees may not flower and fruit for the first twenty years of growth, and therefore falsely appear to be male trees. For these reasons, male clones are grafted onto seedling understock in the nursery industry, for sale as landscape trees.

While slow-growing spur shoots are characteristic of members of the Rose Family (Sargent's Crabapple, for example), they also occur on a few other trees, including Maidenhair Tree. Their knobby appearance in winter gives rise to a cluster of foliage in spring as leaves emerge from their terminal buds.

The light brown bark of Maidenhair Tree is heavily lenticeled when young, and forms subtle interlacing ridges and shallow furrows with maturity.