Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot
Posted: May 24th, 2013 | No Comments »For me a great pleasure of life in Asia has always been the profusion of ginkgo trees, often on city streets even. It’s an amazing tree (dinosaurs would have known ginkgos), native to China of course, but spread across the region and then the world. Sadly too often in Asia, and especially China’s, rush to modernise and bulldoze many gingko’s get lost and destroyed and, as I’ve argued before about banyan trees in Hong Kong and plane trees in (here and here) Shanghai preserving trees is as important as preserving architecture. So a warm welcome to Peter Crane and Peter Raven’s Gingko: The Tree That Time Forgot…
Perhaps the world’s most distinctive tree, ginkgo has remained stubbornly unchanged for more than two hundred million years. A living link to the age of dinosaurs, it survived the great ice ages as a relic in China, but it earned its reprieve when people first found it useful about a thousand years ago. Today ginkgo is beloved for the elegance of its leaves, prized for its edible nuts, and revered for its longevity. This engaging book tells the full and fascinating story of a tree that people saved from extinction – a story that offers hope for other botanical biographies that are still being written. Inspired by the historic ginkgo that has thrived in London’s Kew Gardens since the 1760s, renowned botanist Peter Crane explores the evolutionary history of the species from its mysterious origin through its proliferation, drastic decline, and ultimate resurgence. Crane also highlights the cultural and social significance of the ginkgo: its medicinal and nutritional uses, its power as a source of artistic and religious inspiration, and its importance as one of the world’s most popular street trees. Readers of this extraordinarily interesting book will be drawn to the nearest ginkgo, where they can experience firsthand the timeless beauty of the oldest tree on Earth.
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