The Ginkgo of Parc de Mon Repos

Every other species in the ginkgo's order is a fossil. Ginkgo biloba is the one that is still here, largely unchanged since before flowering trees existed, which is why botanists reach for the phrase living fossil every time one turns up in a park. This one has stood in Parc de Mon Repos for about 160 years. It is 25 metres tall now, with a trunk 3.70 metres round, and it was already worth recording in 1912, when Henri Badoux catalogued the notable trees of the canton and listed it along with the giant sequoia growing a short walk away in the same park. The French name for the species is l'arbre aux quarante ecus, and that is what Lausanne calls this tree. The city's own record adds that it inspired the novelist Bernard Clavel. Come in early November. Ginkgo leaves are flat fans, split down the middle and lacking any central rib, and they turn gold across the whole crown within days of each other, then drop almost in one go. Both the city and Lausanne Tourisme name that fortnight as the point of coming to see this particular tree. It grows behind the Campagne de Mon-Repos mansion, which once housed the International Olympic Committee. The park is free and a short walk from the main station.