Sunday, May 07, 2006

My favourite tree


Something Suz said in a comment made me think of this. I just love Ginkgo trees commonly known as the maidenhair tree. At this time of the year their bright green leaves are just opening and make them look so fragile and delicate when really they are robust and a real survivor. Not for nothing are they also called the Jurassic tree, Fossil tree or the world's oldest tree.

http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/Ginkgo.pdf

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/


I love the shape of them. In Beer, our local seaside town there is one
in the car park and I have watched it growing for about 20 years, it is now becoming a stately and handsome tree, but so delicate looking. Must go and see it again. Soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have quite a few of those trees in Montreal, thanks for telling me about them. My favorite tree is the weeping willows, we have a lot of those all along the river.

greenwords said...

I love ginkgo trees too! They're one of my favourites. I have one in a pot. Ginkgo leaves are just sublime. I really enjoyed your description of them. How wonderful to have been watching a local one grow for 20 years.

Unknown said...

When our youngest left primary school the craze was for everything Jurassic so we gave a Ginkgo to the school to plant in their garden. Don't know whether or not it ever grew, I suspect it was cut down when they built new classrooms.