銀杏(Ginkgo) Ginkgo biloba
Losing the ginkgo would have been a botanical disaster because it is a most amazing survivor—according to the fossil record, it had evolved 200 million years ago. But the ginkgo is also the only living member of a whole division of plants that once constituted a significant proportion of the world’s vegetation but that died out almost entirely along with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. To put this in perspective, conifers constitute on division, all the flowering plants are another.
大意：銀杏是非常奇妙的孑遺植物，已經演化了2億年。
植物界下共有六個門：綠藻門、苔蘚植物門、蕨類植物門、裸子植物門、蘇鐵門、銀杏門和被子植物門(開花植物)。而銀杏是銀杏門內至今唯一孑遺的植物，其他的在6千5百萬年前隨著恐龍的減絕而通通都滅絕了。
保育(野生)的銀杏一種，就等於保育了一門的植物，非常重要而且特別有意義。
Ginkgo, which can be male or female, is a strange mixture of a conifer combined with evolutionary remnants of much more primitive ferns. Pollen from little catkin-like cones on the male tree carries on the wind; with luck, it lands on a tiny droplet of a liquid exuding from a structure on the female tree that resembles a diminutive green acorn—the ovule. The pollen is drown inside and extends a tube to absorb nutrients. After some weeks, the pollen grain bursts to release swimming sperm, each roughly spherical and less than tenth of a millimeter across, propelled on a journey of fertilization by a coordinated phalanx of beating hairs. The ovules develop into seeds with freshly coats that enticing resemble miniature apricots, but whose smell, especially when over-ripe and crushed underfoot, is cocktail of vomit and dog poo…
大意：銀杏雌雄異株，它的生殖方式，是混雜了針葉樹和原始蕨類的過程，非常奇妙有趣。
銀杏雄花是穗狀花序(柔荑花序)，花粉隨風傳播。
花粉有幸掉到雌株的胚珠(ovule)內，花粉伸出花粉管吸收營養，花粉粒爆裂出帶鞭毛的精子，游向卵細胞完成受精。
受精的胚珠長成銀杏的種子。銀杏就是一顆種子，外面的「果肉」其實只是增厚的種皮而已。這層種皮在銀杏成熟之後，會散發出有若大便的惡臭。
……
生銀杏的種核(seed kernels)有毒，是銀杏毒素(4-O-甲基吡哆醇, ginkgotoxin), 是一種神經性毒素。所幸，只要充分加熱烹熟之後，就可以降解而供人食用。
……
昆明大學在網路上的資料，針對野生的銀杏有更多的說明：
Wild Ginkgos have been found in Dalou mountains, located between Guizhou Province and Chongqing Municipality, southwestern China (27°43’44”- 28°56’14″N; 107°15’53”- 108°04’46″E; altitude 840-1200 m a.s.l.).
原生的野生銀杏，在中國西南貴州省和重慶市交界的大樓山(Dalou mountains)有所發現。
Extant Ginkgo populations in the valley and lower mountain slopes of the Dalou Mountains represent fragments of the original natural Ginkgo range. The area is a glacial refugium for these natural fragments. The climate is subtropical, warm and humid.
大樓山就是冰河孑遺植物銀杏的庇護所，氣候屬副熱帶，溫暖潮濕。
The floristic composition of these Ginkgo forests shows that of 31 genera of canopy tree species in the present forests, 25 are also found in the Ginkgo biloba-bearing fossil records. The trees in the study sites are limestone outcrops near creeks and are subject to frequent natural disturbances.
當地野生銀杏林中的所有各種大樹的種類共有31種，其中25種也出現在銀杏化石的地質層結構中。
野生銀杏長在石灰岩地形的露頭，近河流，經常有地形地物的自然擾動。
In these rocky inhospitable areas there have been no human settlements during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The Gelao people are indigenous to the area and they have strict traditional taboo against either planting or logging Ginkgo trees. Han people began to appear in 1664, and they seem to have shared or agreed with the taboo of the Gelao. They believe that having forests near their farmhouses is good feng shui so they have not cut down the Ginkgo trees.
野生銀杏長在不適合人類居住的岩石地形，從明代開始就沒有人在那兒居住。當地原住民族是仡佬族(古稱僚)，他們視種植或砍伐銀杏是莫大禁忌。而後來遷入的漢族，則視住家附近有樹林是好風水，野生銀杏因此繼續得以保留了下來。
……
銀杏的葉子，到了秋天會變黃，是季節金燦燦的顏色。一旦葉子都落了，樹下又是一大片數大熱鬧的的美。銀杏作為銀杏門下的單傳物種，是演化了2億年的冰河孑遺植物，值得尊敬。
我就想，如果開花植物(門)變得像銀杏(門)一樣，只剩一個種；只剩下一種花，那會是多麼的孤獨。而喧鬧的人們，只能欣賞一種花，那會是多麼的寂寞呀！
*：Jonathan Drori, “Around the world in 80 plants,“ 2021，Laurence King Publishing
P.S. 相片2023/10/12 攝於日本東北青森，海邊路樹，海拔10公尺。
2025/11/3 銀杏(Ginkgo) Ginkgo biloba Damakey
