Tree of the Month: Ginkgo Biloba (Male) “Autumn Gold”
While there is only one species of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), there are several cultivars that offer ornamental and ecological variety to the landscape. Here, we’ll take a look at the Autumn Gold ginkgo tree—a hardy urban cultivar that is as beautiful as it is beneficial!
Ginkgo Biloba
The ginkgo is one of the toughest and most versatile trees around! It’s the oldest living tree species we know of, having survived multiple mass extinction events on the planet. Today, there’s only one species of ginkgo left, but it was once one of many other, now-extinct species of ginkgo that were widespread across the world, including several in North America.
Ginkgo biloba is native to Asia, but it doesn’t spread aggressively and isn’t considered invasive in the US. Many ginkgos are planted as ornamentals for their spectacular fall color in particular, but the tree also offers serious adaptability and ecological benefits that make it an ideal urban and neighborhood tree. One of the downsides of ginkgo trees is the bad-smelling berries of female specimens, but the Autumn Gold cultivar solves this potential messiness.
Is the Autumn Gold Ginkgo Tree Male or Female?
The Autumn Gold ginkgo cultivar is always male because it’s propagated by grafting. When the trees are grown from seeds, the tree’s sex isn’t known until the tree reaches 20 to 30 years. The Autumn Gold ginkgo tree is instead grafted by nursery arborists; a branch of a male tree is fit with a piece of ginkgo biloba root, and the male branch grows into a male tree. This ensures it won’t produce berries and helps select for other desirable features, such as color and size.
Characteristics of the Autumn Gold Ginkgo Biloba Tree
The Autumn Gold ginkgo biloba is cultivated for the best traits of a ginkgo! Like other ginkgo tree cultivars, Autumn Gold is very tolerant of urban conditions (including air pollution and acidic soils), and since the Autumn Gold is always male, it doesn’t produce the messy, pungent berries that female trees produce. That makes it especially suitable as a street tree. The male tree does produce flowers, however: small, yellow-green catkins that release pollen in the spring.
The word “ginkgo” is from Chinese via Japanese, meaning “silver apricot” and referring to the tree’s “silvery” and pale orange berries. “Biloba” refers to the defining feature of the ginkgo tree: its iconic fan-shaped leaf with a shallow split in the center (“biloba” meaning “two-lobed”). The ginkgo tree is prized for its autumnal foliage in a similar way to the cherry blossom tree in spring.
The bright, almost neon yellow fall color of the Autumn Gold cultivar gives a striking seasonal display over several weeks. Like other ginkgos, a specimen drops the bulk of its leaves at once, generally following the first hard frost of the year. The sudden bare form of the tree and the blanket of vibrant color over the ground become more impressive with each passing year as the tree matures.
Size and Shape of the Autumn Gold Ginkgo
Ginkgo trees can live for centuries, and the Autumn Gold cultivar grows at a medium pace, taking on about a foot per year. Its slow to moderate growth rate and resilience against disease and pests, in addition to the lack of berry production, means this tree is comparatively low-maintenance.
Ginkgo biloba Autumn Gold trees are on the smaller side of the ginkgo family, reaching up to 40 or 50 feet tall (whereas an uncultivated ginkgo biloba may reach up to 80 feet). Younger specimens have a pyramidal shape, but the branches spread outwards as the tree matures, creating a wide, bushy profile. The bark of a ginkgo is grayish brown, slightly peeling at the edges, and has somewhat diamond-shaped vertical ridges along the trunk.
Plant an Autumn Gold Ginkgo in Nashville
The Autumn Gold ginkgo’s visual interest, urban tolerances, and ecosystem service contributions all add up to one tough tree! These ginkgos like to be planted in full sun with lots of room to get big. They are adaptable to a range of soil types, and while they prefer well-draining soil and regular watering, they have some drought tolerance and can grow in compacted soil or slight alkalinity (meaning this tree does fine in Nashville’s limestone-rich ground).
Check out the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps’ tree sale listing for the Autumn Gold ginkgo biloba tree to get one for your property today! Nashvillians can also sign up to volunteer with us to plant trees across the city or donate a tree for us to plant. We welcome financial donations, which make up an important portion of our operating funds and allow us to fulfill our mission to support Nashville’s canopy!
Sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on our activities and information about Nashville’s urban canopy, and visit our Linktree for even more NTCC content!