Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

How to Identify the Ginkgo Tree | Charlotte Tree ID

13 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this short field segment, Dominic from Charlotte’s Landscape Management Division stands in Elmwood Cemetery and walks viewers through the key characteristics that identify a Ginkgo biloba. He points out the tree’s distinctive fan‑shaped leaves and notes that the species’ genetics have remained essentially unchanged since the Jurassic period, making it a living fossil. Dominic explains that only female ginkgos produce a fleshy fruit that emits a strong, rotten odor—an odor most people find unpleasant but that attracts bees. He concludes by celebrating the ginkgo as one of his favorite and most visually striking trees in Charlotte’s “City of Trees” program, underscoring its cultural and ecological importance to the city.

Chapters

Hi, Dominic here in the Elmwood Cemetery with hundreds of trees maintained by Charlotte's Landscape Management Division. This beautiful tree with its fan-shaped leaves is a ginkgo biloba, and it's one of the oldest trees in the world. Its genetics have been unchanged since the Jurassic period. Female ginkgo trees produce fruit, believe it or not, but it smells rotten and you would not want to eat it. Though, some bees love it. The ginkgo, one of my favorite trees and a beautiful standout in Charlotte, the City of Trees.