DCist: What Do You Think Ginkgo Fruit Smells Like?

EvilOlive

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:54:03 -0500

clearly missed the boat on this post. but YES--agreed--dog poo+vom! swann street is one of the worst offenders. i used to track this literal--sh*t--in all over the carpet. ughhhh. when i lived on swann, and was clearly disturbed by this tree, i remember reading something about how the female ones are the only ones that produce the fruit but you can't tell which is male and female until 15-20 years after it's been planted, and also, coincidentally, firmly rooted in the ground. interestingly though, they are really pollution resistant--and really old--like hundreds of millions of years, evolutionarily unchanged. lol--from the Post: They injected more than 1,000 ginkgo biloba trees with a chemical to stop them from producing the fruit. Whoops. The chemical didn't work, for reasons that scientists still don't understand.

assaf

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:10:12 -0500

Occasionally I park too close to these trees. After driving 15 miles to work in the morning, my car still stinks inside and out.

JBZ

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:31:10 -0500

We had these trees at my undergrad college....the smashed fruit sticks all over the bottoms of your shoes so you end up dragging it into your apartment. It definitely smells like bad vomit more than anything else.

MTPtoPhilly

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:09:41 -0500

God I hate these trees. First in DC, then all over the entire center city and west philly parts of Philadelphia, now DC again. It smells like shit that was puked out of a dying animal. What's worst is how they get smashed and then just sit on streets and sidewalks, making passerby stifle their own vomit which would, in all likelihood, improve the smell around them.

rowhouse111

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:17:37 -0500

i thought that was the smell of fertilizer...heh

fredo

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:57:29 -0500

"vomit mixed with jizz aroma" FTW. Incidentally, the second I read this I immediately thought "I smell sex and candy." (Yes, I know I'm a little late to the party on this one.)

recyclist

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:37:05 -0500

The "cum" trees are different from the ginko trees. We have lots of fragrant trees here in DC. The ginkos only smell when the berries drop, and they smell like baby shit: sour and milky. God, I'm gagging just now. Yeah, why aren't they spraying to kill the berries anymore? The trees with the yellow dots spray painted on them are the females.

chapmade

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:34:01 -0500

Barf Paint.

IMGoph

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:56:56 -0500

that's it. i'm laughing to damn loud the whole office wants to know what it is...

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:44:12 -0500

DC: America's Voteless Goatse.

Fluxgirl

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:22:51 -0500

DC's official tree, right?

NCinDC

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:52:32 -0500

They smell EXACTLY like the city of Philadelphia YES! I'm glad someone else thinks that hellhole smells like cum/puke/doggie doodoo

Deep

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:13:17 -0500

It's a cheese! It's a fruit! It's 2 taste treats in 1!

Kev29

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:09:26 -0500

They smell EXACTLY like the city of Philadelphia

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:55:40 -0500

So sad that they took Ginko Sorbet off the dessert menu at Junkpuncher's. And yet people are lining up for their Welsh Limburger Rarebit. Damn you, Board of Health!

Bethesdaist

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:43:34 -0500

With some of these descriptions, I think you all missed your calling as restaurant reviewers in hell. I had never run into one of these trees before until I saw them mentioned in a Photo of the Day here on DCist, so I sort of blame all of you for calling them into existence in my world. Eew.

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:40:08 -0500

We've always found they had more of a vomit mixed with jizz aroma. Sounds like someone needs to work on their technique.

stmove

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:35:22 -0500

Ginko Berries simple to explain: Shit which someone saw, and then threw up on, after which a fecalfeliac noticed and jizzed on. At least Ginkos are absolutely beautiful when not stinking the world to hell. I submit the Simaroubaceae Ailanthus altissima otherwise know as "Tree of Heaven" (irony) or "Stinking Sumac" There was one in a neighbors yard, which I for years would try to kill in the middle of the night. It permeated the block with the smell of a cat pissing into your notrils, it's "flowers" would then rot and smell like the devils anus, and to top it off this tree monster actually produces poison (ailanthene) in it's bark and roots which kills other trees around it. Ginkos are our friends compared to these monsters. Their aren't many though, because the city will come out and destroy them on sight.

NPGMBR

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:27:53 -0500

They really call those things fruit?

dumbek

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:13:41 -0500

Cue Shitberries Demo by Three.

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:13:01 -0500

Cherchez la frog. Where's this Michaux guy buried. I want to piss on his grave.

Mmmbop

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:12:42 -0500

Cumberland Street between Connecticut Ave and Nebraska Ave has got to be the worst. I'd feel sorry for the homeowners there if it wasn't for their houses tripling in value in ten years

sg5608a

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:04:57 -0500

We can all thank André Michaux for the scourge of the dog shit smell from the ginko tree's our fair city must endure, he is the french jack ass that introduced the tree's to America and the DC region back in the 1780's.

Deep

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:04:22 -0500

What we need is some good crusty french bread to sop up the juices. A little red wine or some honey flavored whiskey. Bon appetite everyone.

majapa

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:47:15 -0500

Ah, nothing like complaining about the smell of jizz/shit/vomit berries to bring a community together.

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:46:08 -0500

parmesan jizz? Take the ginko tree challenge. Imagine a big bowl of ziti and parmesian. Now imagine someone banging the $h!t out of that bowl of ziti. Now, imagine ramming that ziti up your a$$, evacuate yourself, and then "recycle" the leftovers. Vomit. Place next to ginko tree and close your eyes. I defy you to tell the difference.

cminus

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:37:14 -0500

I vote for puke, with notes of dogshit and spoiled milk. Which, checking the comment thread, is pretty much what Reid said, only in different proportions.

gusmama

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:34:54 -0500

I've been lurking in this blog for quite a while, and while I really enjoy DCist and many times I felt compelled to comment, I was always too lazy to register. Well, now finally a post that I feel too strong about to stay silent! I hate HATE those nasty trees! They totally and absolutely smell like puke, freshly-just-vomited puke too. Who had the clever idea of putting them all over the city? Is that poor city planning or WHAT?! Do they want to make us all sick? Why the torture? Why isn’t anyone chopping them down? Thank you DCist for making it possible for me to vent in public about something I’ve been complaining about for-like-ever!

erincarly

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:24:01 -0500

i knew i shouldn't read these comments just after breakfast. blech. of which, we had a whole slew of 'cum trees' in college. (but they weren't ginkos.) every spring, it smelled like one of the frats were airing out their basement. nasty!

eso

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:23:58 -0500

Walking in front of Cap City near Union Station, I wish there were these trees to explain the smell...

boondoggle

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:23:54 -0500

I opened a window, the breeze blew in and I.. When Bruce Willis died at the end of Sixth Sense I.. I ate a grape and I..

Reid

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:18:05 -0500

That DC webpage about replacing ginkgos is ridiculous. For one thing, at least on my block, cutting down one gingko would be like spitting at the rain. For another, why the hell are they proposing to plant more ginkgos?! Didn't they learn their lesson? There's a good chance the tree will eventually become female. Plus, gingkos aren't really that nice of a tree. The leaf shape is nice and all, but it doesn't create much of a canopy or shade. They should replace the gingkos with the new DED-resistant American Elms.

larity27

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:14:59 -0500

Jizz and Vomit? Sounds like Jim Graham's typical Saturday night

iAManugget

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:09:51 -0500

I feel bad for the tourists that stay in front of Hotel George. There are two huge and nondiscriminatory ginkgo trees in front of that hotel that you can smell for blocks.

Reid

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:09:14 -0500

I lean towards dogsh*t drenched in spoiled milk, but I'm willing to admit that there are some strong hints of vomit. This year has been the worst year by far for ginkgos. Normally it's just a few weeks in late October early November then it's over. This year it is still going strong in mid December. I have ginkgos in my neighborhood whose branches are literally stooped over under the weight of all the stinko berries still on the tree. I remember in the past they would spray stuff, but I haven't seen any signs warning about that in a few years. Obviously we need to revisit that decision.

IntangibleArts

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:08:01 -0500

parmesan jizz?

the new demographers

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:36:38 -0500

I KNEW there was a reason I hate the smell of parmesan cheese. Thanks, DCist!

McGillicuddy

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:33:56 -0500

pull my jizzer.

monkeyrotica

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:37:42 -0500

Pull my finger.

endzone44

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:32:50 -0500

Actually, the fruit from the female ginkgo tree is easily prevented. Any of a number of different chemical treatments will keep the trees from producing the fruit: http://www.arborsystems.com/chemicals_pinscher.html The DC government is supposed to inject the trees each season, as many other municipalities do routinely. But, through a combination of incompetence and resistance from local urban eco-freaks, DC usually neglects to do it. The result sums up a lot about our city: narcissistic lefties and idiotic bureaucrats join forces to make the District smell like ass. Have a look -- the ludicrous DC Urban Forestry Administration even has a site advertising their ineptitude: http://ufa.ddot.dc.gov/ufa/cwp/view,a,1292,q,575305.asp

Stan Buzzman

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:35:38 -0500

The stench changes from day to day... sometimes poop, sometimes, vomit, sometimes both. My street's covered in the berries, and it's been stinking up the area for like 2 months now. And no matter how hard ya wipe your feet, that shit sticks to your shoes and permeates the house.

AMDCer

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:28:16 -0500

I've said it before (I think on P of P) and I'll say it again - puke, definitely puke.

NCinDC

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:43:21 -0500

Did someone say jizz? mmm When I head over to the Soviet Safeway for wine, frozen dinners, and laxatives, I must endure the trek down gingko-infested Corcoran Street. I end up checking the bottom of my shoes at least 5 times. I'm always afraid the smell is a gift from one of the neighborhood bitches (and their dogs) that never got scooped up. Remember kids, scoop da poop. To the DC government, I beg you: cut down those goddamn trees. and, scene

no_pants_mcgee

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:15:19 -0500

I always thought it was cat piss, personally.

jkselman

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:49:46 -0500

they smell like the bathrooms at tom tom in adams morgan...a very special combo of vomit, jizz, poop and general nastiness. gag me now.

UrsusMajeure

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:39:05 -0500

"How is it that everyone here is so familiar with the smell of jizz?" Not to mention, a jizz odor strong enough to be discernable amidst the stench of vomit ... i.e., that's a lot of jizz. (ok, reaching a new low here....)

Bethesdaist

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:47:37 -0500

How is it that everyone here is so familiar with the smell of jizz?

doctorjbass

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:40:13 -0500

I've taken to calling them Poo Berries myself... My house is surrounded by them... and I'll never get used to it. It's especially bad when they first explode on contact... Nothing like the smell of fresh Poo Berry explosions in the morning soldier.

woodstock

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:32:00 -0500

It's actually more of a rotting meat+dog shit kinda smell. And the male trees don't fruit.

UrsusMajeure

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:00:03 -0500

"We've always found they had more of a vomit mixed with jizz aroma." That is an aroma cocktail I am pleased to report never having encountered, on a Saturday morning or any other time...

smittydc

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:53:33 -0500

I checked my shoes after walking by one of these last night. Definitely dog-shit.

qbert

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:48:58 -0500

Yeah, Adams Morgan definitely gets the double bonus; the vomit-fruit on top of the actual vomit. @300 sq ft: Gross.

300_sq_ft

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:59:35 -0500

I smelled this crap the other morning on my walk-o-shame home from 17th St to Thomas Circle. I'm glad to know the stench was from this magical sex-changing berry, and not residual, um, funk, from my previous night's, um, rendezvous.

stinkeye

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:46:16 -0500

The chinatown ladies come out every year with their plastic grocey bags to harvest the funky ginko. Seems like 1 part doodie, 2 parts puke to me. Back in the day I had a girlfriend who would puke all the way down Corcoran street til we got to the Safeway every time the stinkos had dropped their nasty load.

Monster_mash

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:26:44 -0500

My better half tells me there are sometimes people of Asian origin collecting the fruit in the park, apparently to make a concoction that is supposedly beneficial to memory. I don't have any memories I want badly enough to compel me to ingest something made of that.

MahoganyShip

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:19:45 -0500

A lesser-known lame thing about ginkgo berries is that they're super corrosive to boot. I parked my car under a tree once and the berries literally peeled the paint off my hood. Oh, and the smell is more like morning-after-Ben's-chili-bowl diarrhea with a hint of citrus.

kelly5612

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:13:34 -0500

Ten years in Philly -- which covered the city in all male trees thinking they'd be safe from the berries, only to later learn that ginkgos can change their sex -- honed that stench down to "shit + vomit" for me. No jizz, sorry.

buzzbee

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:09:33 -0500

I'm in the dogsh*t camp, but I think that dogsh*t is much easier to get rid of. The sh*tberries linger on shoes, in cars, and in houses for much longer...

jyindc

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:00:43 -0500

I call them Pukeberry Trees, and the number one criteria for my house search was to be nowhere near them. That smell is horrendous.

ShawnDC

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:59:51 -0500

Skanky jizz. Definitely.

alexalexalex

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:57:36 -0500

vomit. Before I knew where it was coming from, I used to think that smell, which is quite strong in parts of Georgetown, was from multiple drunks throwing up after bar closing.

Stanton Park

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:57:03 -0500

IMGoph Well, there are male and female Ginko trees. Maybe differences in the male/female ratio explain the variation in the aromas you have noticed. Sorry. I couldn't come up with a "flip her over" joke here. I tried, but I'm just not good enough.

majapa

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:49:48 -0500

My friend calls them jizz trees. They start smelling sometime in the summer when they first start budding - it's a smell that gets inside your nostrils, almost choking you. I could imagine a weaponized, vaporized jizz bomb having the same effect. Adams Morgan (particularly Belmont St) is still covered in them. I really wish the city would come clean them up; these things are a fucking scourge.

IMGoph

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:45:16 -0500

sommer: glad to see that someone is willing to come right out and state so plainly how they feel ginkos smell! most people dance around it, but i'll agree with you wholeheartedly. depending on the street, i've felt it's more vomit in some places, and more semen in others.

kippers

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:40:08 -0500

"vomit mixed with jizz aroma" Saturday morning?

Rukasu

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:39:20 -0500

Def. Smells more like vomit