Ginkgo Pages

Diane Farris

Reflecting on my work for this website, I realize how drawn I have been to ancient plants and creatures, the ginkgo tree among them. Not only does the fossil record of the lovely ginkgo go back over two hundred million years, it is also a tree that thrives in widely diverse – and often adverse - circumstances. We have seen them featured in botanical gardens from California’s Huntington to Rome’s Orto Botanico - and enduring the winds of Chicago and winters of Toronto. The basket of fanlike ginkgo leaves in my studio has leaves from all these places, plus golden ones from Berea, Kentucky where we found ourselves one poignant autumn day.