Seventy years ago Hiroshima was bombed. Some nearly 20KT
yield uranium device fell some 30,000 feet and exploded several thousand feet
above the city. The result was a massive ring of destruction. Surviving that
was a few century old Ginkgo trees, tress which themselves had survived some
250 million years[1].
As a symbol of survival the Ginkgo has great standing. As we look backwards and
then again look forward one thinks of these Ginkgos.
Some twenty five years ago I took a handful of Ginkgo nuts
from the trees at the New York Botanical Garden. I placed them in my pocket,
stink and all, and let them sit in my refrigerator to cold stratify over the
winter and then planted them in my seed beds. Up they came and now twenty five
years later I have one female tree filled with Ginkgo nuts. The legacy of 250
million years goes on. The hardy tree may survive us all, in some way shape or
form, since its seeds will be transplanted elsewhere, to grow again.
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