Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Caiden Murphy's avatar

Ginkgo trees they are native to Asia and actually endangered in the wild they are only found in a few small isolated populations in China. These populations risk being destroyed by habitat loss and climate change. Ginkgo trees are of course not invasive when grown in other places and they are wonderful tough trees! Ginkgo trees are the only living member of their genus, family, order, class, phylum. This means they have no living relatives! This is very unusual for a tree as far as I know ginkgo trees are the only tree to be in this situation! Ginkgo trees have been around for roughly 270 million years and barely changed! Ginkgo trees were around during the dinosaurs! Ginkgo trees can live up to 2,000 years! Ginkgo trees are unfortunately commonly grown as male cultivars these male cultivars lack genetic diversity. This is bad because if a disease evolves or mutates to infect one tree it can infect all of the rest equally. This happened to the gros michel banana cultivar it nearly got wiped out. Luckily ginkgo trees are occasionally grown from seeds and seeds mean lots of genetic diversity. Seeds have lots of genetic diversity because of genetic recombination and genetic crossing and an increased chance for mutations. This is good because while a disease may be able to infect one another may have resistance and survive. Female ginkgo trees while stinky are actually a good thing because they are usually trees grown from seeds and they produce seeds which is important. Female ginkgo trees are also really good at absorbing male ginkgo pollen reducing pollen allergies! Female ginkgo trees do this because they have many sticky cones that catch pollen in spring. Ginkgo trees grown from seeds have a 50% chance to be male or female. Ginkgo tree seeds or baby ginkgo trees grown from seeds can be bought online on websites like Etsy for a few dollars. Ginkgo trees grow in zones 3-9 and like full sun but tolerate shade. Ginkgo trees will grow in any soil even clay but prefer sandier soil. Ginkgo trees like moist or dry soil and do not like constantly wet or soggy soil they do however tolerate occasional flooding. Ginkgo trees are truly amazing unique trees it’s important that we keep them alive for generations to enjoy!

Expand full comment
Sue Cauhape's avatar

Another gem of a post. I love the assortment of ideas you string together in these weekly observations.

When I was a about eight or nine, Mom bought me Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Kids. We tried the meatloaf recipe and Mom included how to bake potatoes and warm-up canned green beans with a shake or two of dried minced onions to complete a nutritious meal. That was a very important memory for me with Mom. I was never able to do something similar with my daughter, so I wrote a cookbook for her. "Beyond Ramen" included recipes and family stories. She took it to college with her and actually used it, cooking us a sumptuous dinner in her new apartment when she moved to Carson City. Unfortunately, I've lost the book Mom gave me, but Val still has "Beyond Ramen."

Expand full comment
5 more comments...

No posts