about Ginkgo biloba

1. Ginkgo biloba
"The living fossil"
SATHISHA . R
1ST M.Sc (BOTANY)
GOVERNMENT SCIENCE COLLEGE

2. CLASSIFICATION
• Class – Ginkgopsida
• Order – Ginkgoales
• Family – Ginkgoaceae
• Genus – Ginkgo
• Species – biloba

3. INTRODUCTION OF
Ginkgo biloba
• The class Ginkgopsida includes a single order
Ginkgoales.
• It is now represented by a single monotypic extant
plant ,Ginkgo biloba.
• The members of this group first appeared in the
Permian period.
• They were well-represented all over the world
during the Jurassic period and gradually started
declining from Cretaceous onwards.

4. INTRODUCTION OF
Ginkgo biloba
• The extant plant, Ginkgo biloba, has its fossil record
as far back as Triassic.
• The leaf impressions of Ginkgo biloba has been
identified from the carboniferous rocks.
• Ginkgo biloba has escaped extinction and still exists
today being the oldest living seed plant.
• Ginkgo biloba has existed for about 150 million
years and has been rightly called the “living fossil”.

5. SAILIENT FEATURES OF
Ginkgo biloba
• Ginkgo biloba is a only living plant of the class
Ginkgopsida.
• It has retained certain primitive characters of its ancestors
such as Dichotomous venation, the ovule with 3-layered
integument, pollen chamber etc.
• Its advanced features are an Ectophloic siphonostele, a
small pith, a thick vascular cylinder, a thin cortex &
absence of mesarch xylem as in Coniferales.

6. SAILIENT FEATURES OF
Ginkgo biloba
• It shows certain characters in common with
Cordaitales such as the branching habit, thick
vascular cylinder, venation of the leaves, structure
of the stamens etc.
• Its distinctive features, however, are the form of the
leaves and the structures of the male & female
strobili.

7. DISTRIBUTION
1. Geological distribution:- Triassic to present day.
2. Geographical distribution:-
• Ginkgo biloba is commonly called Maiden hair tree.
• Ginkgo biloba is successfully cultivated as an
ornamental plant in gardens of North America and
Europe.
• This plants are found growing near the Buddhist
temples in China, japan, thailand, etc.

8. • It has been reported that G.biloba still exists today
in south-eastern china in the wild state.
• In India, very few Ginkgo biloba trees are found in
the botanic gardens of Darjeeling, Dehradoon,
Musoorie, Shibpur, etc.

9. CHARACTERISTICS OF
Ginkgo biloba
• The Ginkgo biloba is a tall deciduous tree(up to
30m height) giving rise to a very irregular pattern of
branching.
• The branches are dimorphic, bearing two types of
shoot : long shoots and dwarf shoots.
• The leaves also shows dimorphism, those present on
the long shoot are deeply lobed, while those on the
dwarf shoots are either not so deeply lobed or may
be entire.
• It has a tap root system which posseses strong
lateral roots that penetrate deep into the soil.

10. REPRODUCTION
• Ginkgo biloba reproduces sexually.
• It is dioecious.
• Morphologically , the male and female plants are
indistinguishable before the formation of
reproductive organs.
• However, the male and female trees can be
distinguished cytologically at an early stage.

11. LIFE CYCLE

12. PHOTO GALLERY
• Ginkgo biloba

13. REFERENCES
[1] Bhattacharya, Hait, Ghosh, “The text book of
BOTANY”, vol 2, New central book agency Pvt
Ltd,2015. pp 47-57.
[2] S.N.Pandey, S.P Misra, P.S Tried, “A text book of
Botany”, Volume 2, 13th ed. Vikas publishing house
PVT LTD, 2016. Pp 133
[3] www.googlephotos.com

14. QUESTIONS?
AND
ANSWERS.

15. THANKYOU