@freemo Is it possible that the oldest ginkgo tree in Europe is alive and thriving in Utrecht?
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CONTEXT. In 1690-1692, Engelbert Kempfer worked at Japanese outpost of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). He was the physician for small group of European men on Dejima island in Nagasaki harbor.
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In 1712, an account of Kempfer's time in Japan was published in Europe. Also, he published the names and botanical descriptions of 325 previously unidentified plants native to Japan. -- see Nagata, Toshiyuki dt al. (2015). " Engelbert Kaempfer, Genemon Imamura and the origin of the name Ginkgo," Taxon. 64 (10). March 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273159910_Engelbert_Kaempfer_Genemon_Imamura_and_the_origin_of_the_name_GinkgoI; and see 1712 botanical illustration of the ginkgo below
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GINKGO IN UTRECHT.
According to Wikipedia, Kempfer was "the first western scholar to describe the tree Ginkgo biloba. He brought some Ginkgo seeds back that were planted in the botanical garden in Utrecht. The trees have survived to the 21st century." -- see "Engelbert Kempfter," Siam and Japan, 2nd paragraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engelbert_Kaempfer#Siam_and_Japan
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QUESTION? Is this trivial fact about a very hardy Japanese tree well known in Utrecht? If so, what do you know?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?
@chikara
Nice find and well documented, good work, Chikara!
Wonderful to think that tree came from so far away, on a long sail ship passage around the planet. Started it's life on new continent and is still around, 500 years later.
We have some interesting old growth pine and cedar trees here in Ontario, along the Niagara Escarpment. They grew into accumulated vegetal debris in the rock faces, very little soil or space, sometimes not that much sun exposure, depending on the orientation.
And some of them, even being stunted little trees, are over a thousand years old.
