The story of the Ginkgo
On August 6, 1945, a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, extinguishing all life-forms for several kilometres. Yet months after the bombing, one tree species — the ginkgo — sprang to life, astonishing everyone. About 1,000 years ago, it could only be found in the East — mainly in China and Japan — where people ate its seeds, used them to treat various ailments, and worshipped the tree as a symbol of longevity and vitality. The first among them was Engelbert Kaempfer from Germany, who encountered the tree in Japan and called it ‘ginkgo’ based on the Japanese pronunciation. Eventually, ginkgo seeds were taken to Europe and one can only imagine the delight of naturalists who found that it thrived even in their part of the world!
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