The Inverted Ginkgo of Nishi Honganji

This ginkgo grows low and wide rather than tall, its heaviest branches spreading outward close to the ground before the trunk narrows above them, an arrangement that from certain angles makes the whole tree look planted upside down, roots reaching for the sky. That resemblance earned it the name Sakasa Icho, inverted ginkgo, sometime after it went into the ground in front of Nishi Honganji's Goeido Hall in 1636. A second nickname, Mizufuki Icho, water-spouting ginkgo, comes from a temple legend that the tree spouted water to help extinguish fires that threatened the complex in 1788 and again in 1864, both real, documented blazes in Kyoto's history even if the tree's firefighting role is legend rather than record. Ginkgos are famously fire-resistant compared to other species, their trunks holding unusual water content, which may be where the story got its foothold. The tree is a designated Kyoto City natural monument and turns gold most reliably in late November, one of the more dependable autumn color displays in a city that plans its calendar around them.