The Ginkgo Trees Lose Their Leaves

November 17, 2020

The mighty ginkgo tree in my sunken Summer House garden is bare once again.

Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, and also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta. It is found in fossils dating back about 300-million years. Native to China, the ginkgo is widely cultivated. I have several ginkgo trees planted around my home, but the majestic female ginkgo behind my Summer House is original to the property and more than 250-years old. Although not as large as others I've seen, my tree is quite massive. Ginkgo trees have beautiful green leaves that turn a luminous golden yellow in fall. And on one day, after a hard frost sweeps down the east coast, my mighty ginkgo, along with the others at my farm and countless more in the area, drops its leaves leaving a gorgeous carpet of color below.

Here are some photos, enjoy.

: This is the sunken garden behind my Summer House. This parterre garden is very formal and focused on the giant 250-year old ginkgo tree in the rear. This photo was taken in late June when the tree was lush with green foliage. Growing beneath the ginkgo is a beautiful chocolate mimosa tree, a fast-growing, deciduous tree with a wide, umbrella-shaped canopy.

: This photo was taken in mid September before the leaves turned. The paths in this garden are rectilinear and bordered with boxwood, more ginkgoes, Cotinus, and other specimen plantings.

: The younger ginkgo trees are planted on both sides of the footpath. The ginkgo is considered both a shade tree and an ornamental tree. It features a spreading canopy capable of blocking sunlight and adds visual interest and beauty to the landscape. The ginkgo grows to about 50 to 80-feet tall with a spread of 25 to 35-feet at maturity.

: The ginkgo has a cone-like shape when young, and becomes irregularly rounded as it ages.

: As summer turns to fall, many of the changing leaves are two-toned, with separate bands of gold and green.

: By the first week of November, the leaves on all the ginkgoes are bright golden yellow.

: And here is the tree just last Friday. Some of the leaves blew off in the wind, but most are still clinging to the branches.

: This is the mighty ginkgo now – completely stripped of leaves. One day over the weekend, it got so cold that the leaves dropped at once, leaving a soft blanket of golden yellow on the ground – it’s quite amazing.

: Here’s a closer look at the tree’s naked branches. Everyone at the farm checks on the tree daily during this time of year, and finally the great ginkgo is bare once again.

: The trunk of the ginkgo tree is a light brown to brownish-gray bark that is deeply furrowed and highly ridged. The ridges become more pronounced as the tree ages. The trunk circumference of the giant tree measures more than 14-feet.

: All the leaves have fallen to the ground in the garden beds and on the footpath below. Ginkgoes are grown as hedges in China to supply the leaves for western herbal medicine. The leaves contain ginkgolides, which are used to improve blood circulation to the brain and to treat many cardiovascular diseases. It is usually Europe’s number one selling herbal medication.

: Boxwood also lines both sides of the stone footpath in this garden – now all covered in ginkgo leaves. I have taller American boxwood surrounding the entire space.

: The leaves of the ginkgo are unusually fan-shaped, up to three-inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three-inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze.

: Each mature leaf often has a single vertical slit in the top center. This forms the fan with a cavity in the middle separating it into two lobes. Bi-loba means “with two lobes”.

: The lawn outside the garden is also covered in ginkgo leaves. To explain the phenomenon, deciduous trees form a scar between their leaves and stems to protect themselves from diseases and cold. Most flowering trees form scars at different rates, in different parts of the tree, over several weeks. Their leaves then fall off individually. However, ginkgo trees form scars across all their stems at once. And when a hard frost arrives, it finishes severing every leaf, and they fall to the ground in unison.

: My great ginkgo tree is a female specimen. Female ginkgo trees produce tan-orange oval fruits that fall to the ground in October and November.

: The most noticeable thing about these is their smell – it is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.

: Here is one of the younger trees – also bare. The ginkgo biloba is one of the most distinct and beautiful of all deciduous trees. It prefers a minimum of four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day.

: Some of these younger trees hung onto a few leaves, but most of them also dropped over the weekend.

: This is a photo of one of smaller ginkgo trees at a corner of my herbaceous peony bed – there is one on each corner of this garden. These trees also lost all their leaves.