🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello, 

CorK wrote:

> Up till now  the City of Ashland has not take any action to try to
> save the monumental 100 years old Ginkgo that is one of the few old
> and female Ginkgos in the USA and deserves our respect and protection.
> It is also a native tree looking at the fossil record in the western
> part of the US.

NO, the fossil record does not support the idea that 
Gingko biloba is a native tree to Oregon.

Both Stewart and Rothwell (1993) and Tidwell (1998) note
that Gingko went extinct in North America during the 
Miocene.  The Miocene lasted from 23.8 million to
5.3 million years ago.  Neither author lists when 
in the Miocene the extinction occurred.  However, 
since gingko occurs in the Mascall Formation 
of Oregon, which dates 12-15 million years old
( http://www.nps.gov/joda/home.htm ), 
it appears that Late Miocene 11.2-5.3 million years
ago would be a good bet.  The UCMP website 
indicates that Gingkos disappeared from 
North America around seven million years ago
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/seedplants/ginkgoales/ginkgofr.html

So, claiming that Ginkgo is a native to 
the western U.S. is similar to a me deciding
that I should have a right to go to Ireland
and be considered a native, simply because I 
had relatives there hundreds of years ago.
It fails any test of logic.

Based on the other groups that were present
in western North America at the same time, 
horses, rhinos, camels, and elephants 
could be considered native to the area as well.

Being extinct in an area for approximately seven 
million years before being re-introduced through
cultivation means that a species is not a native.



References
Stewart WN and Rothwell GW, 1993, Paleobotany
   and the Evolution of Plants. Cambridge:
   cambridge University Press.
  
Tidwell WD, 1998, Common Fossil Plants of 
   Western North America.  Washington, DC: 
   Smithsonian Institution Press.
  
  
 Rick Toomey
 Illinois State Museum
 toomey@museum.state.il.us