The Striking Yellow Gingko Tree

It’s a tree you may not notice until it turns saffron yellow in the autumn months. You’ll see the natural blanket of fan-shaped leaves that unfolds beneath its trunk as the tree sheds. And you may stop in awe, not realizing how many times you’ve passed this tree without a glance and only now, see it as a solitary beacon of color against other empty trees.

Well, maybe not you. But me … until I fell under the spell of the Ginkgo.

Ginkgo biloba — considered the oldest living tree species — is not native to the San Francisco Bay Area — well, not in its current form. It disappeared from North America and Europe but trees survived in China. These trees were reintroduced as ornamental plants, and now populate the streets of Berkeley where this photo was taken. *

^{Source: Steven Foster Group}

If you dabble in herbals, you’ll know that Gingko biloba extracts are used widely for a variety of inflammatory conditions as well as memory enhancement.

^{Photo ©ingrid}