How can you tell the sex of a ginkgo tree?
Question:we just bought it at the nursery and didn't ask the sex (if they would even know) if there any quick way to tell?
Answers:
If the tree gives you a little gift each time you greet it, owns about fifty pairs of shoes, wonders if you are mad at it if you don't speak to it after about two hours of watching the football game on tv, or feels a need to clean up before the maid arrives, then it's a female.
If the tree refuses to ask a stranger for directions if it's lost, urinates on other trees, prefers to have sex with the lights on instead of off, or throws empty beer cans at the tv screen whenever Rosie is on, then it's a male tree.
The Adam's apple and deep voice is usually a dead giveway. If you're still confused about the gender of any particular tree after a drink or two, I suggest you give a fake phone number and move on. Ginkgo trees are cunning, very deceptive, but will quickly admit to crossdressing at the meer sight of a chainsaw.
I pulled this from a sight on Ginkgos-
These trees produce fruits and leaves normally as well, and only some leaves acquire fruits. The fruits are sterile. There are no obvious attributes of ginkgo to distinguish the sexes, apart from observing the emergence of the sporangia in the Spring; but as the trees generally don't 'flower' for 50 years, its rather a long time to wait!! It is possible to distinguish the sexes by chromosome morphology, because the female lacks one tiny satellite on one chromosome. To tell the sexes apart seems to be important only in countries other than Japan and China, because of the rather bad smell of the fruit in autumn male trees are preferred. However, the Japanese people certainly don't seem to care and don't mind the smell, and many people collect the nuts for food. I have read that the male trees tend to be more upright, pyramidal, and the females more compact with lower branches and some pendulous, but I have seen the opposite of these attributes. And anyway, it would be better to be able to tell the sex from the seed. Perhaps an antibody is the answer
I hope you do not have a female because they will smell!! If you bought it from the nursery I am sure that they only buy the males because of the odor that they produce. I remember talking about this in science class but I don't remember how to tell the sex.
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