Bai Guo

Ginkgo biloba is a long-lived deciduous tree in the monotypic family Ginkgoaceae, often growing 20 to 35 meters tall, with a strongly pyramidal crown when young that broadens with age. The bark is grey, becoming deeply fissured on old trunks, and shoots are dimorphic, with long shoots bearing scattered leaves and short spur shoots producing dense clusters. Leaves are unique among seed plants: fan-shaped, leathery, 5 to 10 cm wide, with dichotomously branching veins and a notch dividing the blade into two lobes. The species is dioecious; male trees bear small catkin-like pollen cones while female trees produce paired ovules on slender stalks that mature into fleshy, plum-like seeds with a foul-smelling fleshy outer coat and a hard inner shell enclosing the edible kernel. Native to a small area of central China and surviving as a relict of an ancient lineage, Ginkgo is now widely cultivated worldwide as an ornamental and medicinal tree.