Dominion’s Finest Ginkgo Tree May Be Destroyed

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27675, 3 June 1955, Page 12

Dominion’s Finest Ginkgo Tree May Be Destroyed

I At the front of a property at 82 ■ Chester street, Christchurch bought by the Lyttelton Harbour Board as the I site for an office building, grows a Ginkgo -biloba or maidenhair tree, believed to be the largest and finest specimen in New Zealand.

The tree will probably have to be cut down to make way for the new offices. The board has not yet set a date for its building, but present proposals appear to favour demolition of the house now on the property, and use of the site for off-street parking until the land is required for building.

Often referred to as a living fossil, the ginkgo tree has been shown by rock examinations to have grown 150,000,000 years ago. It was then distributed over Alaska, Canada, Oregon, Greenland, Europe, Siberia. China Japan and Australia. Over the years, its relatives have become extinct, and the ginkgo now stands alone as the only plant representing a species, a one US> 3 an order all in

To botanists, the ginkgo is of great scientific interest. It is classified with the gymnosperms, to which pines, firs cypresses and other conifers belong’ It differs from all these, however in having non-resinous wood and ’ in having motile sperms like ferns. Conihave wind-blown pollen. Male and female flowers are found ?Jt,„T P « rate gink <° trees - Fertilised female flowers produce a seed the size of a hazel nut with a fleshy covering. When the flesh is ripe it has an unpleasant smell, but the nut has a starchy kernel with an almond flavour ™„ nUts b ? en an article of commerce in China for thousands of years digestion* 6 ” a * ter dinner to Promote

Tim earliest known reference to the t>mkgo is m a Chinese agricultural H>° r the d t tln w, fron : the eishtb oontu”. J.? . te K th . centur y. a nut was one Dynasty rendered to the Sung Preservation of the tree is owed to its association with religion. From the earliest times, it was grown in the grounds of Buddhist temples and tombs in China. About the sixth century it followed Buddhism to Japan M h i ! niw« t k ?r k ha \o heen specimens 5 up to 100 ft high and 30ft in diameter. P More than 200 years ago, the ginkgo was taken to Europe by the Dutch plan ‘® d ln . the Utrecht Botanic . rd ®ns. It was introduced to England in 1752; but all the early trees were males. A female tree flowered in Geneva in 1914, and by grafting scions from it on the male trees in England fruit was obtained there. tn K lantl - A ginkgo tree which fruited at Hnv™ s . nur ? eries m Christchurch in 1937, when it was 50 years old is the ° f fruiting kr >own in New c i sily recognised by its wide, fattened, fleshy two-lobed leaves somewhat fan-shaped and suggestive of maidenhair fern leaflets

Other specimens in Christchurch inln the Ganterbury UnivcrnX quadrangle. Others alternate with limes m an avenue in the nf Ot th» C . G ? rde . ns - and at the north end of the triangle opnosite the Pioneer Sports Club, there is a small specimen Xn ".,™° Wn lOr lts brilliant autumn