ginkgo biloba

The maidenhair, ginkgo or ginko tree is in the ginkgo or Ginkgoaceae family native to China where it has survived in wild state in Zhejiang and Guixhou provinces and in temple gardens. It is widely planted as street trees in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The Japanese and Chinese symbols for it mean "silver fruit".

• Leaves are alternate, simple, unique among seed plants for being fan-shaped, with veins radiating out into the leaf blade, like a maiden's hair tied in the back (thus 'maiden hair' tree). The leaves sometimes have 2 lobes (thus 'biloba').
• Maidenhair trees are dioecious, with trees being male or female. The male structures are conspicuous drooping yellow-green catkins, while the females are inconspicuous yellow ovules (ginkgo is a non-flowering plant). Most of the trees planted in gardens are male (female plants can produce a rancid smell when the flesh on the outside of the nuts decays).
• Transportation of males to the females is by wind, as with most gymnosperms, but with ginkgos, the pollen is captured by landing on a liquid secretion (called a pollen drop) produced by the ovule, and the motile (free-swimming) sperm with flagella then move in a cilia-like motion through the liquid secretion to fertilize the female.
• The seed is 1.5–2 cm long with a fleshy outer layer when removed revealing a light tan hard shell with a soft ginkgo nut seed inside. Ginkgo nuts are highly appreciated for their use in cooking in Asia, and even as salted 'beer nuts'.
• Branches have numerous short spur shoots, buds are broadly conical, reddish brown.