ginkgo — 2017 — The 21st Century Matriarch

I like ginkgo trees – the way the trees grow…the shape of the leaves and the way they move in the breeze (I’ve heard that their fruit is stinky but have never been around a tree that had fruit). There is a tree in the picnic area of Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm that I’ve photographed several times over the past few weeks; I’m sharing my two favorite images – perhaps of the same branch.

The first day was very cloudy. The leaves are in silhouette against gray sky…but there are water droplets which make it not quite a simply silhouette.

The second one was on a brighter day. I like the color of the sky behind the silhouetted leaves. The leaves had another week or so to mature making the characteristic ginkgo shape more obvious.

I think I like the one with water droplets best.

The Ginkgo Tree near the Brookside Gardens conservatories is full of opening buds. I always try to photograph them because there is a stone bench just below the tree and give me enough height to do some close-up photography of the buds. The tree itself is very tall and slender, fitting into the space beside the intersection of multiple paths.

It is a male tree (no stinky fruit in the fall); the buds include the male flowers and tiny furled leaves. The male flowers always look like small bunches grapes…the leaves like miniature fans. Both look very bright green next to the knobby bark of the tree.