"The ginkgo tree is from the era of dinosaurs, but while the dinosaur has been extinguished, the modern ginkgo has not changed. After the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the ginkgo was the first tree that came back up. It's amazing."
Koji Nakanishi
I have been spelling ginkgo wrong in most of my posts...but I've got it straight now and I went back and fixed them all. And this seems like a good chance to say that I'm a terrible editor of my own writing. I know I make errors...it's just the way it is.
I came home from Maine yesterday to find my ginkgo status quo. The leaves a very deep yellow and a few have dropped...but most remain on the tree.
On a walk this morning Anita mentioned that a hard frost is related to leaves dropping....which probably explains why these leaves are taking so long to drop....it's been so warm. It also got me wondering, why unlike other trees, the ginkgo tends to drop their leaves all at once...so I googled it. You gotta' love the internet at times like this.
Most deciduous trees, like maples, loose their leaves over a few weeks for a good reason. A protective scar slowly develops at the base of the stem keeping the tree safe from disease. The outer, more exposed leaves develop the scar first so they fall first. Then the next layer does the same and so on...the process taking a few weeks.
The ginkgo tree forms protective scars all at the same time on the whole tree. Then, usually triggered by a hard frost the leaves can fall all in one day. So I'm wondering unless we get a a cold snap....they may just trickle down at their leisure. It was in the 60's today...and there are a few cooler nights coming...but not a hard frost. We haven't even had one at all yet. This is also what probably happened last year...they just turned brown on the tree. hmmmmm
I gathered up a few leaves from the lawn and was
fascinated with all the different shapes and sizes.
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