Among my favorite qualities of the gingko tree is its decisiveness.

With most fall foliage, a leaf drops here or there, leaving its friends on the branch for a while longer. Not so with the gingko, whose leaves turn a lovely goldenrod before all falling to the ground simultaneously in what The Atlantic once termed “The Great Ginkgo Leaf Dump.” (The magazine also noted that each year, said leaf dump happens slightly later as a consequence of climate change.)

Ginkgos lose all their leaves at the same time because of the way their petioles—known as stems—work, according to the Chicago Tribune. As the weather gets colder, the petioles get what’s called scars to protect the tree from disease after the leaves fall. For most trees, that happens on a leaf-by-leaf basis. But in the case of the ginkgo, all the scars form at the same time. Then, it takes a particularly cold spate of weather, like, say, the kind we’ve just experienced, to cause all the ginkgo leaves to drop.

Aside from the spring stink, ginkgos are sublime. As many people observed, it appears that this year, many of the leaves fell while still somewhat green.

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