There are very few examples in the world of what scientists refer to as living fossils, i.e. plants and animals alive today that are largely unchanged from fossil remains. Of course the best known example of these are crocodiles and alligators which scientists believe have survived for over 200 million years. Older still is the Ginko Biloba tree estimated to be 270 million years old. It`s not just its age that makes this tree remarkable, it`s that despite its success as a species it might not have existed for thousands of years without human help.
The Ginko Biloba Tree was thought by European scientists to be extinct, and like the rest of the Ginko family was only known from fossil records. All this changed when German scientist and explorer Engelbert Kaempfer travelled to Japan in 1691. In Kaempfers travels across Japan he frequently visited the houses of nobles and a number of monasteries. frequently seen in the gardens of these buildings were Ginko Biloba trees, which were much prized for their culinary and medical properties. When he returned to Europe in 1693 Kaempfer donated some Ginko Biloba seeds to the botanical gardens in Utrecht. The Ginko Biloba trees in Utrecht have been used to spawn collections of Ginko trees in botanical gardens all over Europe and the US.
Ginko Biloba trees are very disease resistant and it is claimed that individual trees may be over 2,500 years old. Despite their toughness the Ginko Biloba tree is for the most part unknown in the wild, indeed in the Zhejiang province of China where the tree has been seen in the wild, it is now thought due to the limited genetic diversity in the population that they were planted there.
The Ginko Biloba is a strong tree and you can`t really imagine how a tree so strong has to rely on human help to make it a success. Even more-so if you consider that there are four Ginko Biloba trees in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb blast despite being only 2 kilometres from the explosion area.
One of the main factors that has helped the Ginko Biloba tree to thrive is that it is used widely in traditional oriental medicines. The future also looks promisingfor the Ginko Biloba tree as there are now claims that it helps with the central nervous system, with research being undertaken to asses its appropriateness for Alzheimer`s sufferers.
By : Maria Tillinghouse
