Species
+

Ginkgo biloba L.

Ginkgo, Maidenhair tree, Maidenhair tree, Maidenhair-tree

Climate known 61 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo, also known as the maidenhair tree, and often misspelled "gingko" is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils similar to the living species, belonging to the genus Ginkgo, extend back to the Middle Jurassic epoch about 170 million years ago. The tree was cultivated early in human history, remains commonly planted, and is widely regarded as a living fossil.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ginkgo biloba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ginkgo

Ginkgo is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and Ginkgo is now the only living genus within the order. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ginkgo”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ginkgoaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China Southeast
Wild records
14 in range· 12 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1300mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1300 mm a year, wettest July at 211 mm, driest December at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ginkgo biloba f. adiantifolia Sprecher; Ginkgo biloba f. adiantifolia Sprecher ex Tobler; Ginkgo biloba f. aurea (J.Nelson) Beissn.; Ginkgo biloba f. fastigiata (A.Henry) Rehder; Ginkgo biloba f. laciniata (Carrière) Beissn. and 41 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (990 mm of 1300 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1300 mm a year, wettest July at 211 mm, driest December at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1300 mm a year at the habitat, 990 mm of it March to September. Wettest month July at 211 mm, driest December at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1043 mm to 2012 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 35).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.7 °C, the absolute minimum -11.8 °C, about 45 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.6 °C to 5.4 °C), warmest day 30.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1300 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 14 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–33RH 58–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 14 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 6–1410 / 8–1614 / 12–2120 / 18–2525 / 23–2728 / 26–2931 / 28–3231 / 27–3227 / 23–2922 / 19–2516 / 13–1910 / 8–15
Night °C1 / -3–52 / -1–86 / 3–1112 / 8–1617 / 13–2021 / 18–2325 / 20–2624 / 19–2621 / 15–2215 / 10–179 / 4–113 / -1–6
Rain mm65 / 12–8869 / 16–113104 / 33–16692 / 62–234129 / 88–285205 / 144–387211 / 152–282158 / 134–24591 / 82–16775 / 54–9462 / 26–8939 / 12–54
DLI17 / 14–2021 / 14–2325 / 17–2831 / 22–3433 / 26–3531 / 27–3333 / 31–3531 / 30–3327 / 25–2923 / 21–2419 / 18–2017 / 16–19
RH %60 / 57–6260 / 57–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–6362 / 58–6464 / 60–6664 / 61–6664 / 61–6663 / 60–6459 / 58–6458 / 57–6358 / 56–61

Each figure is the median across the 14 grid cells holding the 14 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1172:5996 (31.375, 119.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 14 distinct grid cells holding the 14 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1172:5996 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.50_120.000, lapse-corrected -4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina Southeast· introduced: Austria, Romania, China South-Central, China North-Central, Japan, Korea, Illinois
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.37, 119.82 · in the densest population, 5 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 14 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 12 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1165 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 14 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ginkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo bilobaGinkgo biloba

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Summit Metro Parks, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Samuele Papeschi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Andrew Conboy, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ginkgo biloba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant Activity and Phenolic Compounds in Selected Herbs
Wei Zheng, Shiow Y. Wang (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Lignin Biosynthesis and Structure
Ruben Vanholme, Brecht Demedts, Kris Morreel, John Ralph (2010) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Screening of Brazilian plant extracts for antioxidant activity by the use of DPPH free radical method
Luciana Lopes Mensor, Fábio S. Menezes, Gilda Guimarães Leitão, Alexandre S. Reis (2001) · Phytotherapy Research
The Hawthorne Effect: a randomised, controlled trial
Rob McCarney, James Warner, Steve Iliffe, Robbert van Haselen (2007) · BMC Medical Research Methodology
A Review on the Dietary Flavonoid Kaempferol
José Manuel Calderón‐Montaño, Estefanía Burgos‐Morón, Concepción Pérez‐Guerrero, Miguel López‐Lázaro (2011) · Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry
The Nitric Oxide-Scavenging Properties of Ginkgo Biloba Extract EGb 761
Lucia Marcocci, J. J. Maguire, M T Droy-Lefaix, Lester Packer (1994) · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Clinical Practice Guideline: Tinnitus
David E. Tunkel, Carol A. Bauer, Gordon H. Sun, Richard M. Rosenfeld (2014) · Otolaryngology
Flavonoids in Health and Disease
Catherine Rice‐Evans, Lester Packer (2003)
Ginkgo Biloba
Louise Tenney Mh (1996)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.