Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

The ginkgo is a large deciduous tree native to China, the sole surviving species of a group of trees that has existed for over 200 million years, earning it a reputation as a living fossil with no other close living relatives. It has distinctive fan-shaped leaves that turn a brilliant golden yellow in autumn before dropping over a short period, and the tree is unusually resistant to disease, pollution and pests, allowing individual trees to live for well over a thousand years. Ginkgo trees are either male or female, and the female tree produces a fleshy seed coat with a notoriously foul, rancid smell when it falls and decomposes, which is why male trees are strongly preferred for street and garden planting. Long cultivated in temples and gardens across East Asia, the ginkgo has become a popular ornamental tree worldwide and remains especially resilient in urban environments, having famously been among the first plants to resprout near the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.