Tree · Ginkgoaceae
Ginkgo
Ginkgo biloba
Slow, tough, and all but indestructible, the ginkgo is a tree you plant for the long haul.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 3–8
50–80 ft · 15.2–24.4 m
Overview
The ginkgo is a living fossil, the last survivor of a plant line that goes back more than 200 million years. It stands apart from every other tree you can plant, with fan-shaped leaves and a form all its own, and it shrugs off drought, heat, pollution, road salt, and pests that wear down most shade trees. That toughness, plus a long life, is why you still see it lining city streets.
It grows slowly and lives for a very long time, so it asks for patience more than work. A young tree reaches 50 to 80 feet (15.2 to 24.4 m) tall in time, with a wide, open crown, which means you give it room and then mostly leave it be. The payoff comes each autumn when the whole canopy turns a clear, bright gold and then drops, often within a day or two.
One detail decides everything about living with a ginkgo: it is dioecious, so each tree is either male or female. Female trees drop a fleshy, foul-smelling fruit in fall, while the fruitless male cultivars stay clean. Nearly every tree sold for landscaping is a grafted male for exactly that reason.
Care
The short version: plant it in full sun and well-drained soil, keep it watered for the first few years until it settles in, and once it's established it pretty much takes care of itself.
Light
Give a ginkgo full sun, where it grows densest and colors best in fall. It will take partial shade, but the crown opens up and thins out the less light it gets.
Water
Keep a young tree steadily watered for its first few years while the roots establish, letting the top half of the soil dry between drinks. Once it's settled in, the ginkgo is genuinely drought-tolerant and needs extra water only through a long dry spell.
Soil
It isn't fussy about soil and grows in loam, sand, or clay so long as the ground drains. A pH anywhere from 5.0 to 8.0 suits it, which covers most yards without any amendment.
Temperature
This is a cold-hardy, heat-tough tree that takes anything from -40°F to 100°F (-40°C to 38°C). That range is why it thrives from northern zones down through hot southern streets.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor humidity is all it needs, so there's nothing to manage here. Average air suits it fine in any climate where it's hardy.
Feeding
Feed a young tree a balanced slow-release tree fertilizer in spring to push good early growth. An established ginkgo rarely needs feeding at all and gets along on what the soil provides.
Pruning
Prune a young tree in late winter to set one strong central leader and a clean branch structure. A mature ginkgo needs very little, so once the frame is built you can mostly leave the saw in the shed.
Repotting
A ginkgo is a landscape tree and is rarely repotted, but a young one held in a container shows when it's outgrown its pot. Watch for roots circling the pot or pushing out the drainage holes, water running straight through, and new growth stalling.
Size & spacing
Plan for a large tree that reaches 50 to 80 feet (15.2 to 24.4 m) tall and spreads 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) wide. Give it that much open room away from buildings, walks, and power lines so the broad crown can fill out.
When to plant
The ginkgo is hardy from zone 3 to zone 8 and goes in the ground in spring or fall, when the weather is mild and the roots can settle before the next stress. It grows slowly, so the early years are about steady watering rather than fast results, and the reward is the golden show every autumn.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: spring or fall
- Harvest: April (inconspicuous; dioecious)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 3–8
Temperature: down to -40°C
Troubleshooting
A ginkgo gives you very little trouble, which is part of its appeal. The few issues that come up are tied to a young tree settling in or to the mess and irritation from a female tree's fruit. Match what you're seeing below, then act while it still helps.
Browning leaf edges, scorch, and dieback on the branches
On a young, unestablished tree this is usually plain heat or drought stress, and it shows up as an even browning right around the leaf margins during a hot, dry stretch. The harder case is bacterial leaf scorch, which creeps through the canopy section by section over several seasons. Water deeply and mulch a stressed young tree, but a tree confirmed with the bacterial form is best removed.
Fix:
- Water deeply during drought, especially for newly planted trees
- Mulch to conserve soil moisture
- Remove severely declining trees if bacterial scorch is confirmed
An itchy, blistering rash after handling crushed fruit
The pulp of a female tree's fruit holds ginkgolic acids, urushiol-like compounds that act much like poison ivy on the skin. Wash the area well with soap and water, then treat the rash the same way you would a poison-ivy reaction. Gloves prevent it, and a male cultivar avoids the fruit entirely.
Fix:
- Wash the affected skin thoroughly with soap and water
- Treat dermatitis symptomatically as for poison ivy
A rancid smell and slick fallen fruit under the tree in fall
This is a female ginkgo dropping its fleshy seed coats, which carry butyric acid and smell like rancid butter. Rake the fruit up quickly before it gets walked through, and wear gloves so the pulp doesn't irritate your skin. The way to skip the whole nuisance is to plant a fruitless male cultivar from the start.
Fix:
- Rake and remove fallen fruit promptly
- Wear gloves when handling crushed fruit to avoid skin irritation
Toxicity
The ginkgo is a low-toxicity tree, and its fan-shaped leaves pose little risk to pets, livestock, or people. The caution sits with the female tree's fruit and raw seeds: the fleshy pulp can cause a poison-ivy-like rash on bare skin, and raw or large amounts of the inner seed contain ginkgotoxin. Most landscape trees are fruitless males, but where a female drops fruit, keep pets and curious children away from the litter.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds · People
Cats Caution
The leaves are low in toxicity, so a nibble of foliage is no real worry. The catch is a female tree's fallen fruit and raw seeds, which can upset the stomach, so keep a cat away from any litter under the tree.
Dogs Caution
A dog grazing the leaves is unlikely to come to harm. Watch instead for one chewing the dropped fleshy fruit or raw seeds, which can bring on drooling and stomach trouble, with large amounts a worse concern.
Horses Caution
The foliage carries little toxicity for a horse. The sensible caution is to keep them off windfall seeds and crushed fruit, since the raw seed holds ginkgotoxin.
Rabbits Caution
A leaf or two won't trouble a rabbit, given how low the foliage runs in toxins. Don't let one get at the raw seeds, though, because a small animal handles ginkgotoxin poorly.
Livestock Caution
Cattle, goats, and sheep can browse the leaves without much risk. The thing to fence off is the drop of fleshy fruit and raw seeds in autumn under a female tree.
Birds Caution
Birds will scatter and spread the fallen seeds, and the foliage poses no real problem. Still, the raw inner seed carries ginkgotoxin, so it's not something to set out for backyard poultry.
People Caution
The leaves and leaf extracts are low in toxicity, but two things deserve care. Handling the female fruit's pulp can cause a poison-ivy-like rash, and eating raw or large amounts of the inner seed can cause ginkgotoxin poisoning, so cooked seeds are kept to small servings.
Only FEMALE trees produce fleshy seed coats; the fruit pulp contains ginkgolic acids (urushiol-like) that can cause poison-ivy-like contact dermatitis in people handling the crushed fruit, and RAW seeds/nuts contain ginkgotoxin (4'-O-methylpyridoxine) which can cause toxicity such as seizures if many are eaten raw. Plant fruitless male cultivars.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Almost every ginkgo worth planting in a yard or along a street is a fruitless male cultivar, chosen to skip the messy fall fruit. These are the ones you'll run into most.
Autumn Gold
A fruitless male cultivar with a broad, even crown and bright golden fall color, reaching about 50 feet (15 m) tall and 30 feet (9 m) wide.
Princeton Sentry
A fruitless male cultivar with a narrow, upright, conical shape that fits tight spots and street-side planting.
Magyar
A fruitless male cultivar with a tidy columnar-to-pyramidal form that makes it a clean choice for a street tree.
How to propagate
Ginkgos are propagated to lock in a known male, fruitless tree, so the usual routes are grafting and cuttings rather than seed.
GraftingDemanding
Late winter to spring (dormant scion onto seedling understock) · 1-2 years
Grafting is how the fruitless male cultivars are propagated. A dormant scion is worked onto seedling rootstock in late winter or spring, which keeps the cultivar true to type and guarantees a male tree, and the union takes a year or two to establish. It's exacting work, so it's the demanding end of propagation.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Midsummer (semi-hardwood) · 1-2 years
Take semi-hardwood cuttings of 10 to 15 cm from a mature male tree in midsummer, dip them in IBA rooting hormone, and keep them under mist. They root over a year or two and grow slowly from there, but they carry the parent's known sex, which is the whole point.
SeedDemanding
Fall, after cleaning and stratifying seed · Several years
You can clean and stratify seed in fall and sow it, but the seedlings are slow and take several years to settle in. The bigger problem is sex: a ginkgo won't reveal whether it's male or female for 15 to 20 years or more, so seed is a poor choice when you want a guaranteed fruitless male.
Myths
Ginkgo trees are poisonous and dangerous to plant near pets.
The ginkgo isn't on the ASPCA toxic-plant lists, and the fruitless male trees sold for landscaping are treated as non-toxic to cats and dogs. The real concern is narrow: it's the female tree's fallen fruit and raw seeds, not the tree's leaves or wood, that you keep pets away from.
Every ginkgo makes a foul-smelling mess in fall.
Only the female tree produces the fleshy seed coats that smell of butyric acid as they rot on the ground. The male cultivars sold for landscaping are fruitless and odor-free, which is exactly why they dominate the trade.