🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <90euvj$qvg@unix2.cc.ksu.edu>, reikirk@ksu.edu (Bob Kirk) wrote:

> Appears not to have been posted a couple weeks ago:
> 
>    I really don't have time to mess with this, and various searches a few
> days back proved fruitless, but re the unchallenged assertion that Ginkgo
> has only been in the USA since (?) 1913:
>    Michael Dirr lists this as introduced to cultivation in 1787, which 
> per style [of his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants] would be the earliest
> recorded Western cultivation, but 1913 seems >awfully< late for something
> that's been around that long to have reached the US.
>    Besides, a passage sticks in my mind - Oliver Wendell Holmes (I don't
> know whether the father (1809-94) or son (1841-1935) proposing to his
> future wife on (?) Boston Commons: "Will you take the Long Walk with me?"
> And failing correction I believe that was in the non-metaphorical sense an
> avenue of ginkgo trees which must thus by sometime around the mid-1800's
> have been sufficiently mature to be a named landscape feature.
> 
According to A. J. Downing in his 'Landscape Gardening and Rural
Architecture', first published in 1832, there were established Ginkos in
Philadelphia as early as 1805. At the time he wrote the book Gingkos were
still a very rare tree, and worthy of specific mention.

-- 
Kay Cangemi

A chiel 's amang ye takin' notes - Burns

New York, USDA zone 5
http://www.ulster.net/~cangemi

In article <3A2B0A54.A196C42D@home.com>, Pam <grdngal48@home.com> wrote:

> I would venture to say that gingkos have been present in the US, although
> perhaps not literally 'under cultivation',  for somewhat longer than even
> Dirr's 1787.  Washington State is home to a petrified gingko forest near
> Vantage on the Columbia River and I managed to unearth a gingko leaf fossile
> this summer in north central Washington.........I think the paleobotanist said
> it dated back some 14 million years.

That might be, *but* that's not the same line as present-day ginkos. Any
paleoginkos in North America went extinct quite some time ago. The living
one goes back to a very small population preserved in the far East. Those
were not known to Western nations until a few centuries ago.

So, while there may have been ginkos in North America at one time, they
were gone well before Columbus reached the New World.

There's a similar story with the Metasequoia...

Regards,
Bill

-- 
"Those who do not learn the lessons of science fiction are condemned to
live them." -- WTM

I would venture to say that gingkos have been present in the US, although
perhaps not literally 'under cultivation',  for somewhat longer than even
Dirr's 1787.  Washington State is home to a petrified gingko forest near
Vantage on the Columbia River and I managed to unearth a gingko leaf fossile
this summer in north central Washington.........I think the paleobotanist said
it dated back some 14 million years.

Pam - gardengal



Bob Kirk wrote:

> Appears not to have been posted a couple weeks ago:
>
>    I really don't have time to mess with this, and various searches a few
> days back proved fruitless, but re the unchallenged assertion that Ginkgo
> has only been in the USA since (?) 1913:
>    Michael Dirr lists this as introduced to cultivation in 1787, which
> per style [of his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants] would be the earliest
> recorded Western cultivation, but 1913 seems >awfully< late for something
> that's been around that long to have reached the US.
>    Besides, a passage sticks in my mind - Oliver Wendell Holmes (I don't
> know whether the father (1809-94) or son (1841-1935) proposing to his
> future wife on (?) Boston Commons: "Will you take the Long Walk with me?"
> And failing correction I believe that was in the non-metaphorical sense an
> avenue of ginkgo trees which must thus by sometime around the mid-1800's
> have been sufficiently mature to be a named landscape feature.
>
>    bk---
>
> "Oh, yes, yes, I will!"   Readers may now either swoon
> or point out that these were elm trees, chestnuts etc.

In article <3a2c9325.2357301@news.xs4all.nl>, CorK wrote:
> There are not many old Ginkgos in the USA. That's why it is sad and
> uncivilized to cut down a rare 100-year old female Ginkgo (read my
> specials-page).

That does it! Into the kill file with this bore.
 
Roger

kwantenzap@xs4all.nl (CorK) expounded:

>There are not many old Ginkgos in the USA. That's why it is sad and
>uncivilized to cut down a rare 100-year old female Ginkgo (read my
>specials-page).
>Much information about the tree Ginkgo biloba (and also about its
>presence in America) can be read on my homepage:

Why do you continue to say there aren't many old Ginkgos here in the
USA, when so many have posted to tell you you're wrong?  I know of a
beauty, outside the Rockland MA Post Office, and several others here
in southeastern New England.  No, they aren't as common as Norway
Maples, but they're around.  They aren't rare.

-- 
Ann, Gardening in Zone 6a
Just south of Boston, MA
********************************
http://www.annzoid.com

Ann wrote:
> 
> kwantenzap@xs4all.nl (CorK) expounded:
> 
> >There are not many old Ginkgos in the USA. That's why it is sad and
> >uncivilized to cut down a rare 100-year old female Ginkgo (read my
> >specials-page).
> >Much information about the tree Ginkgo biloba (and also about its
> >presence in America) can be read on my homepage:
> 
> Why do you continue to say there aren't many old Ginkgos here in the
> USA, when so many have posted to tell you you're wrong?  I know of a
> beauty, outside the Rockland MA Post Office, and several others here
> in southeastern New England.  No, they aren't as common as Norway
> Maples, but they're around.  They aren't rare.
>
> --
> Ann, Gardening in Zone 6a
> Just south of Boston, MA
> ********************************
> http://www.annzoid.com

They sure aren't.

Skokie Illinois lined it's streets in the 60's with them, for example.

Here at MSU (Michigan), we've got a couple real old (100+ years) ones,
including one in one of the local off-campus neighborhoods.

Just last year, though, the on-campus population went from about 5 to
about 100, when they lined several avenues with them - they are well
known for their pollution-tolerance.

-Tm

-- 
           *    .             *    '^
           ,..              "  .    *
         ,
             '         Tommy Mac

On 3 Dec 2000 20:19:31 -0600, reikirk@ksu.edu (Bob Kirk) wrote:

There are not many old Ginkgos in the USA. That's why it is sad and
uncivilized to cut down a rare 100-year old female Ginkgo (read my
specials-page).
Much information about the tree Ginkgo biloba (and also about its
presence in America) can be read on my homepage:

The Ginkgo Pages
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten

>Appears not to have been posted a couple weeks ago:
>
>   I really don't have time to mess with this, and various searches a few
>days back proved fruitless, but re the unchallenged assertion that Ginkgo
>has only been in the USA since (?) 1913:
>   Michael Dirr lists this as introduced to cultivation in 1787, which