The Goethe Ginkgo of Roedelheim

In September 1815 Goethe wrote a poem about a single ginkgo leaf, split down the middle and still one leaf, and sent it to Marianne von Willemer with two real ginkgo leaves fixed to the page. Rödelheim would like those leaves to have come from this tree. It has a case, and it does not have proof. The ginkgo went in around 1750 beside the Petrihaus, in what was then the little County of Solms-Rödelheim. The house later belonged to the banker Georg Brentano, and in September 1814 Goethe was a guest of the Brentano family in Rödelheim. A year later came 'Gingo biloba'. The board at the tree suggests the connection. Wikipedia calls it possible and says the leaves cannot be traced to this tree with certainty, which is where the evidence stops, and so does this page. The tree needs no poem. The city register gives it about 260 years and 18 metres; the Wikipedia article says over 270 and calls it the oldest ginkgo in Germany, which is that article's claim rather than ours. It stands a few metres south of the Petrihaus, with the Nidda weir just beyond and Brentanopark on the far bank. The catch is the gate. The grounds open only for events of the Förderverein Petrihaus and on the last Sunday afternoon of each month from spring to autumn, so check before you go. The newest dated photograph we found is from 2017; if you have stood under it since, tell us.