Ginkgo-Lined D.C., Capital of the U.S., and Now P.U.

[babylonsister]

Ginkgo-Lined D.C., Capital of the U.S., and Now P.U.

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 13, 2008; Page A01


The bouquet of a ginkgo tree's fruit has strong notes of unwashed feet and Diaper Genie, with noticeable hints of spoiled butter.

For the District government this winter, it is the smell of defeat.

This year, arborists working for the city tried a new solution for the stinky fruit, which has plagued residents for decades. They injected more than 1,000 ginkgo biloba trees with a chemical to stop them from producing the fruit.

Whoops.

The chemical didn't work, for reasons that scientists still don't understand. Now, instead of less ginkgo stink, Washington has its worst case in years -- a bumper crop of nastiness that is studding sidewalks and sliming dress shoes from Capitol Hill to Kalorama.

"Uuuuugh. Uuuuugh," said Christine Lombardi, working the front desk of the Hotel George near Union Station. Out front, a ginkgo had been dropping berries for days. "It's just awful because people step on it outside, and then they bring it inside the hotel, and people think somebody got sick."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121204097.html

[Skidmore]

1. Somehow amazingly appropriate for DC.

Perhaps the gingko should be Congress' official tree.

[Swamp Rat]

2. At least it's not Durian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

[babylonsister]

3. Oooh, that stuff is nasty or, as they say, 'an acquired taste'.

Good morning, Swampie! :fistbump: I'm enjoying your graphics this a.m., as usual.

[Richard D]

10. OK, I'm weird

I like Durian.
There, I said it.

[rucky]

11. I'm with ya

the few, the proud...

[MazeRat7]

15. Yup, they were serious about keeping that one out of my hotel in Malaysia...

Signs everywhere and I was told "security" (their words not mine) walked each floor several times day "sniffing about".

I almost felt like sneaking one in and hiding it somewhere just to watch the fun...

But then I figured it just might be a jail-able offense.

Peace,
MZr7

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. They should have planted just the male trees.

Male trees do not bear the smelly fruit.

[MikeE]

8. No, but ginko trees can change sex

so, if you plant male trees, they can change to female. Plus the fruits, as bad as they smell are edible and quite prized in asian cuisine. The city should be harvesting them.

[surrealAmerican]

13. Can they really?

I didn't know. I figured it was just a case of not being able to tell when you plant them because it takes over 30 years for a female to produce fruit.

[Bear down under]

16. You propagate them from cuttings

Using material taken from trees of known sex. Growing them from seed is cheaper, however, which is why you find so many females in street plantings. False economy, IMHO, as the higher price of a cutting grown tree actually represents a very small percentage of the overall cost of planting and maintaining it. Quite apart from the nuisance of the fruit, male trees are to be preferred as they are usually more graceful in habit.

Even cutting grown trees can take many years to flower. There is a pair of cutting-grown ones (male and female) in the quadrangle of University House in Canberra which were planted in 1954. The ginkgo being such an interesting tree -- it is half-way between the conifers and the flowering plants -- they were planted so the botany students could have ginkgo fruits to study without having to fetch them up from the University of Melbourne.

I remember the excitement when the female bore its first fruit in 1982. Perhaps because they were falling into cultivated beds and not onto paving, the fruit didn't smell nearly as bad as everyone thought they would. Not exactly pleasant, but hardly overwheming. They look like small apricots, and it is the flesh that smells as it rots: the stones (which are the ginkgo nuts that people eat) don't smell.

My own in the backyard here is a cutting-grown male and it will be interesting to see if it changes sex at some time in the future. It was planted in 1994 and hasn't flowered yet.

The only link I can find to the transsexual ginkgo at Kew: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/apr/29/stuartjeffries.mainsection If I read the story correctly, it's only one branch that has changed over, not the whole tree, which was planted in 1762.

[tekisui]

5. I was a gardener on the Ginko lined streets of DC.

When the female trees are dropping their fruit, which I had to haul away, it smelled like dog shit. It really is horrid. But, in a earthy tolerable way.

[Eurobabe]

6. Sorry, but I HATE those trees!!!

My university used to have them lining the sidewalk on the way over to the Fieldhouse and Gym. The kids would track this smashed mix that smelled like "vomit mixed with dog poo" into our office, it was nauseating. Said Univ. cut the trees down, partly to make way for a new dorm, partly because no one could stand the smell of the pukeberries.

The smell is like nothing you've ever experience. Truly disgusting. :puke: :puke:

[babylonsister]

7. I've never had the 'pleasure' of smelling one; I think I'm glad about that! nt

[Eurobabe]

12. I've changed poopy diapers

endured kids hurling, etc., but the smell of those pukeberries is truly a uniquely revolting smell.

[jpak]

9. That stink evolved to attract seed dispersers - I wonder what kind of dinosuar it was?

:shrug:

[surrealAmerican]

14. Probably those shrew-like early mammals.