Gingko leaves
Dec 18th, 2007 by Ad Blankestijn
In the front garden of Rengeji, in north-eastern Kyoto, a beautiful gingko tree showed the splendor of its yellow foliage.
As I wrote in my article on Zenpukuji Temple, the gingko or as it is called in English, “Maidenhair tree,” is a strange tree. It is prehistoric and has not changed in its 200 million-year history. It has therefore been called a “living fossil.”
There are male and female trees and the wind has to carry the pollen of the male tree to the female flowers. The ripe seed has a bad smell, but the soft nuts inside the hard shell are a delicacy. They are eaten grilled on skewers but you can also find them as delicacies in your chawanmushi, steamed custard.
The typical, fan shaped leaves turn a beautiful yellow in autumn. It is a robust tree, resistant to cold, disease and urban pollution. The gingko leaf also is the symbol of the city of Tokyo (as it resembles the “T” for Tokyo - the gingko tree itself also serves as “metropolitan tree”).
P.S. the pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago.
