Ginkgo (Ginkgoales)

This group gathers Conifers and Other Gymnosperms subcategory members belonging to the order Ginkgoales, represented today by a single living species, Ginkgo biloba, the sole survivor of an order that was far more diverse throughout the age of the dinosaurs and is often called a living fossil for having changed remarkably little in roughly two hundred million years. Recognized by its distinctive fan-shaped leaves with dichotomously branching veins, found in no other living seed plant, ginkgo is also unusual for bearing separate male and female trees, the female's foul-smelling fleshy seed coat a frequent reason cities plant only male specimens along streets. Long cultivated in China and preserved for centuries in temple gardens, wild ginkgo populations are now considered rare, and most of the world's trees descend from cultivated stock.