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December 22, 2016

Discovery of fossil wood Ginkgo biloba



Recently, Chinese and French scientists led by Wang Yongdong, professor at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researched new fossil wood of Ginkgo biloba. The fossil wood (Ginkgoxylon liaoningense) was collected from the Tiaojishan Formation in western Liaoning, northeastern China. 
It probably dates from the Middle to Late Jurassic.

According to the researchers this discovery represents the oldest well-dated occurence of Ginkgo wood.
Its anatomy departs slightly from that of modern Ginkgo, it displays all its characteristic features. It differs only in having a more mixed type of radial pitting, which also occurs, albeit locally, in modern Ginkgo wood. The xylem structures of Ginkgoxylon liaoningense illustrates the basal state of Ginkgo wood anatomy and will contribute to the understanding of Ginkgo evolution.


Article: 
Jiang, Z. et al. A Jurassic wood providing insights into the earliest step in Ginkgo wood evolution.
Scientific Reports 6, art.no. 38191; doi: 10.1038/srep38191 (2016).

Full article: Nature.com
 
Photo: CRIENGLISH.com

 More info and photos of 

fossil Ginkgo wood on my Fossils-page.

 

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December 20, 2016

Swan Lake with Ginkgo leaves


"Swan Lake"  ballet as seen by Prof. Zhonglang Wang,
Kunming Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
Figures composed of Ginkgo leaves, stalks and seeds, wonderful!
See more here.


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December 18, 2016

Merry Christmas - Happy 2017


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Wishing all visitors of my forum-blog, website The Ginkgo Pages , YouTube channel and Twitter 
Peace and Happiness at Christmas and throughout 2017 ,
Cor Kwant

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December 10, 2016

Ginkgo Poem Howard Nemerov

Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri has several Ginkgo trees growing on its campus. Well-known is its Ginkgo Walk, that became the inspiration for WashU former professor Howard Nemerov to write his famous poem The Consent; he loved the Ginkgo Walk.
The path leads from the Brookings Quad to the rest of the campus - and directly to Olin Library.
More on my blogpost of  September 22, 2011.

Oliver Sacks wrote about this poem in The New Yorker of November 24, 2014: Night of the Ginkgo.
 
On this video WashU students read Howard Nemerov’s poem.
Please do not read the video subtitles (incorrect), but read the correct text + more info on my website.



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December 06, 2016

Old Ginkgo tree in Kobe in winter, Japan

 Snow covered old Ginkgo.
 


Big Ginkgo tree in Kobe in fall/winter, Japan. 
Said to be 500 years old, height 36 m, girth 11.2 m. Natural monument.
Mizuho, Iiyama-shi, Nagano Prefecture. 

Read my blog post of December 19, 2014 to see more of this great tree.

Video on YouTube by haruyuki onoue.

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December 02, 2016

Updates of my website The Ginkgo Pages

 * New topic: Complete genome sequence of Ginkgo decoded.

 * New photo on Photospecial page: Fallen Ginkgo leaves + poem by Howard Nemerov. 

Subscribe to receive free email updates.-- Cor Kwant

Visit my website The Ginkgo Pages.