let’s talk briefly about how beautiful ginkgo leaves are, with their scalloped umbrella shape and their perfect crepe paper veined surfaces, and their triumphant golden fall color. and then let’s talk about planting something else for a while on the boulevards of our cities. thanks to dutch elm disease, and now the emerald ash borer, minneapolis and saint paul have lost a huge chunk of their urban forest canopy, and i think that’s true of many similar north american cities. it’s tempting to replace all of those elms and ash trees with an easy, hardy, pretty tree like ginkgo. but i just read that an urban oak can host 500 different species of caterpillars, and ginkgo biloba hosts only one. and where caterpillars go, so go native birds. and when there aren’t acorns and walnuts, the squirrels aren’t interested. and when there aren’t squirrels and native birds, the raptors go somewhere else. and soon enough our vibrant urban forest starts looking like a pretty, but sterile, urban desert. i offer this as the viewpoint of one single nature blogger, who will now pick up her soapbox, and go home.

ginkgo leaf

minneapolis, minnesota