Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Female Ginkgo Trees?
We'll pay you $0.10 for every ginkgo seed you collect for us (same with chestnuts if you can ID the Chestnut tree or collect some leaves).
Producing female G. biloba trees is one of our four big tree projects at the Wood House Research Farm. This photo from Blandy Farm yesterday is (like so many things at Blandy Farm) my model of success with ginkgoes some day.
The form, color and unique leaf shape are just a few reasons why we're working to maintain the Ginkgo gene pool here in Hampshire County. Literally (and taxonomically), there is no tree quite like it, and there hasn't been for probably millions of years. There is only one other group of trees that have free-swimming sperm.
As street trees they are stunning, but the seeds from the female trees smell like a whole kindergarten class all vomited in the same spot. So planners began buying only male trees, which nurseries produced largely by cuttings (one strategy for cloning). That means a disease could be advantaged by this narrow gene pool and wipe out all trees in a city.
Producing female G. biloba trees is one of our four big tree projects at the Wood House Research Farm. This photo from Blandy Farm yesterday is (like so many things at Blandy Farm) my model of success with ginkgoes some day.
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| Ginkgoes at Blandy Farm at the Virginia State Arboretum near Boyce, Virginia. |
The form, color and unique leaf shape are just a few reasons why we're working to maintain the Ginkgo gene pool here in Hampshire County. Literally (and taxonomically), there is no tree quite like it, and there hasn't been for probably millions of years. There is only one other group of trees that have free-swimming sperm.
As street trees they are stunning, but the seeds from the female trees smell like a whole kindergarten class all vomited in the same spot. So planners began buying only male trees, which nurseries produced largely by cuttings (one strategy for cloning). That means a disease could be advantaged by this narrow gene pool and wipe out all trees in a city.
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