Adam, the Daruvar Ginkgo

Croatia's biggest ginkgo has a partner. The protected tree in front of the Janković Palace in Daruvar is a male, and the younger ginkgo beside it is a female, so the town calls them Adam and Eve. Adam is the one that counts. The county nature protection body has listed it since 4 October 1967 as a monument of park architecture, and it is billed as the largest and oldest ginkgo in Croatia, with a trunk more than seven metres round. Its age rests on tradition. The ginkgo is said to have gone in when the palace was built: around 1777 by the county's account, around 1780 by the tourist board's. The Croatian press notes that no exact record survives, so about 250 years is the fair way to put it. If the tradition holds, the tree and the palace behind it are the same age, and have stood facing each other the whole time. In 2019 the pair were entered in Croatia's Tree of the Year as the Ginkgo in Love, and won. A year later Adam came second in Europe with 28,060 votes. Come in autumn. Both trees turn gold, and a ginkgo drops its leaves almost all at once.