Flat fans 5 to 10 cm across on long stalks, notched in the middle, with veins that fork many times.
Introduced · Up to 28 m
Ginkgo
Ginkgo biloba · Ginkgoaceae
Ginkgo is a tree planted in parks, large gardens and city streets. Its leaves are flat green fans on long stalks, notched or split in the middle. In autumn they turn gold.
Often mistaken for European larch. How to tell them apart →Know it by
Leaves5 to 10 cm across, long-stalked, veins forking many times.
TwigsShiny grey shoots, the spurs at regular intervals.ShapeSpire-like when young, broad and lopsided when old.
Leaves5 to 10 cm across, long-stalked, veins forking many times.TwigsShiny grey shoots, the spurs at regular intervals.ShapeSpire-like when young, broad and lopsided when old.Then check · BarkGreyish brown and corky, broken into short, uneven furrows, and craggy and deeply ridged on an old trunk.
How to identify a ginkgo
Shiny grey, faintly ridged shoots with stubby woody spurs set at regular intervals, each with a tuft of leaves at its tip.
Narrow and spire-like when young, broad and lopsided when old, its few limbs set well apart and spiky with short spurs.
Learn the ginkgo in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
jamie-aa, CC BY 4.0
Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0
Cassian, CC BY 4.0Clive Freedman, CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Catkins
Seeds
In leaf: April to November · Catkins: April to May · Seeds: June to November
Every tree on the calendar · How to identify trees in winter
Where you’ll find it
Always planted, in parks, large gardens and city streets. It copes well with polluted air and little room for its roots, so towns plant it. It grows best, and is commonest, where summers are warm.
What it’s mistaken for
- PearBoth can have a spiky crown, thick with short spur shoots. Bark. Ginkgo: greyish brown and corky, in short uneven furrows. Pear: blackish, cracked into small knobbly squares.
In the app
There’s more of the ginkgo in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the ginkgo on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0), Clive Freedman (CC BY 4.0), Daniel Cahen (CC BY 4.0), Cassian (CC BY 4.0), Jarro Nevsbaru (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.