Dinosaurs On Main St.: Ginko Biloba

These trees are living fossils! They coexisted with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

In front of the Northville Community Center is a street side planting of a number of Ginko trees (Ginko biloba). This species is a native of China and makes an interesting ornamental tree. Some varieties also provide decent shade after a number of years, as the crown spreads out. Their leaves turn to a yellow tone in the autumn and shed their leaves all at once. Extracts from the leaves are said to have medicinal properties.

Most plant life at the time these lived alongside the dinosaurs was fern-like. Our modern flowering trees did not yet exist. Ginkgoes somehow survived the meteor which induced a long global winter that eliminated the dinosaurs. Now they’re on Main St. Northville!