Ginkgo biloba

Scientific Name: Ginkgo biloba

Common Name: Ginkgo, China Maidenhair

In 1806, William Hamilton wrote to Thomas Jefferson that he intended to send him three trees that he thought Jefferson would "deem valuable additions" to his garden. Ginkgo biloba or the China Maidenhair tree was one of the three. Hamilton went on to say that it produced a "good eatable nut."^[1]

The Ginkgo is a large, hardy, deciduous tree with delicate, fan-shaped leaves that turn bright yellow in fall, and it has been used medicinally for thousands of years. The female trees produce edible fruit.

- Peggy Cornett, n.d.

Further Sources

• Betts, Edwin M., Hazlehurst Bolton Perkins, and Peter J. Hatch. Thomas Jefferson's Flower Garden at Monticello, 3rd ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1986.
• Cornett, Peggy. "Inspirations from the Woodlands: Jefferson's Enduring Ties to Philadelphia's Botanical Riches." Twinleaf (January 2005).
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.