{"id":10301,"date":"2021-08-25T10:02:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=10301"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:50:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:50:17","slug":"episode-416-the-ginkgo-treelone-survivor-from-the-carboniferous-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=10301","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 416 THE GINKGO TREE\u2026LONE SURVIVOR FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ERA"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 416      THE GINKGO TREE\u2026LONE SURVIVOR FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ERA<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
august 24, 2021<\/div>\n

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THE ANCIENT GINKGO TREE<\/div>\n

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We have a Ginkgo tree growing beside our house.   So what?  So we have a living fossil dating back<\/div>\n
deep  into the geologic history of our earth.   Ginkgo trees seem to have thrived in the Carboniferous era<\/div>\n
2999 to 350 million years ago. Those 51 million years were wet and warm most of the time so great <\/div>\n
tropical jungles covered the land mass.   Huge swamps we\u2019re full of life.  And then the world changed<\/div>\n
and that life mass became extinct except for the Gingko tree  By luck and good care by Chinese Buddhist <\/div>\n
monks the Gingko was saved from extinction.   The ancient trees of this kind are<\/div>\n
Only to be found in the huge layers of coal that<\/div>\n
dot the earth today.  None survived in the wild. Were it not for the Buddhist monks<\/div>\n
none would have survived.  A remarkable story.<\/div>\n

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Today the Ginkgo is the national tree of China.   Ginkgo\u2019s are part of most North American cities.<\/div>\n
They are tough.   They are also very unusual.  They reproduce in a manner similar to humans.<\/div>\n
Sperm from male Ginkgo tree float on the air .. riding on pollen \u2026in their search for female<\/div>\n
Ginkgo trees to fertilize.  Sex.<\/div>\n

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This manner of reproduction is proof of their ancient origin.   Ginkgo trees were alive on earth<\/div>\n
before the age of flowers.    Flowering plants were so successful that they pushed earlier<\/div>\n
plant forms towards extinction\u2026.except for the Ginkgo.<\/div>\n

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Our Gingko tree is a male ginkgo.   Most of the ginkgo trees found on city streets (like along<\/div>\n
Lakeshore Road in Mimico, West Toronto) are male ginkgo trees.  Few people want female ginkgo trees<\/div>\n
anywhere near their property.   Why?  Because they stink.  I mean really stink.  One source<\/div>\n
says they over their seeds with a fleshy material that smells like human vomitl  Others are<\/div>\n
less polite and say the ginkgo berries smell like dog shit.  Female trees are kept in special<\/div>\n
nuseries as a result.   Why so stinky?   Another survival skill.  Certain creatures life rotten<\/div>\n
or rotting food.  They set the berries and then excrete the nuts.  Spread the Ginkgo trees<\/div>\n
that way.<\/div>\n

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Sometimes a male tree will fool everyone and switch to become a female.  Or develop<\/div>\n
a female branch on the male tree.  This is thought to be a survival skill.<\/div>\n

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If you can stand the smell (vomit or dog shit) and clean the fleshy material off the nut<\/div>\n
then Ginkgo berries are edible.   Some people, mostly Chinese I think, value the nuts.<\/div>\n
Ginkgo trees are valued by medical experts for a variety of ailments.<\/div>\n

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The trees can live s long time.  One Ginkgo in central China is reputed to be 1,000 years old.<\/div>\n

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Our ginkgo is about 10 years old.  It has a long life ahead of it unless  it decides to change sex.<\/div>\n

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\"Gingko<\/a><\/div>\n
These Ginkgo berries smell so bad that they have to be cleaned up as soon as<\/div>\n
they fall\u2026smell like vomit or dog dung, take your pick.  Why?   Smell designed to<\/div>\n
attract creatures who find smell attractive.  This evolved in time more ancient than<\/div>\n
flowering trees.<\/div>\n

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OPEN PIT COAL MINE IN RUSSIA \u2014 FINDS FOSSILS OF GINKGO TREE<\/div>\n

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The fossils… 300 million year old remains of a once tropical jungle were noticed<\/div>\n
on the top layer of this open pit coal deposit below..  The last jungle of the Carboniferous Era, at least<\/div>\n
 that is what the fossils seem to suggest.  These discoveries are so recent that they<\/div>\n
have not been fully documented.<\/div>\n

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 THE GINKGO WAS THERE AMONG THE GIANT FERNS, <\/div>\n

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How could slower growing trees like the Ginkgo compete with rapid growing<\/div>\n
giant ferns (60 feet high and higher)?  Apparently the Ginkgo trees \u201cbolted\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2026in other words the trunk grew fast and straight \u2026. no branches until it<\/div>\n
got higher than the ferns.   Hence the ginkgo trees had their leafy<\/div>\n
tops higher than the ferns.  Illustrations can be seen in theoretical drawings<\/div>\n
of these ancient tropical jungles.<\/div>\n

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Our gingko tree in the side yard has grown in that manner\u2026i.e. bolted\u2026but<\/div>\n
this effect may have been much more recent.   Modern ginkgo are less speedy<\/div>\n

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\"Paleontologists<\/figure>\n

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Another similar discovery has been made recently in central Mongolia.  And Still another was noticed <\/figure>\n
on the ceiling of an exhausted coal mine in Russia.
Open pit mine in Tevshiin Govi in central Mongolia where the mummified fossil plants were found. Credit: Fabiany Herrera & Patrick Herendeen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“A discovery of well-preserved fossil plants by paleontologists from the United States, China, Japan, <\/p>\n

Russia and Mongolia has allowed researchers to identify a distant relative of the living plant Ginkgo biloba.”<\/p>\n

MEDICINAL VALUE OF THE GINKGO<\/div>\n

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I leave that for you to research.  Lots of info available.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
alan<\/div>\n
August 24, 2021<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 416      THE GINKGO TREE\u2026LONE SURVIVOR FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ERA alan skeoch august 24, 2021 THE ANCIENT GINKGO TREE We have a Ginkgo tree growing beside our house.   So what?  So we have a living fossil dating back deep  into the geologic history of our earth.   Ginkgo trees seem to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}