Ryotokuji no Ohatsuki Icho

This ginkgo grows its seeds on the edges of its leaves, which is not how ginkgos work. It is an ohatsuki icho, a rare variant in which the ovule develops on the leaf margin instead of on a stalk of its own, and it does it every year from August into November. Japan made it a National Natural Monument in December 1929. It stands in the grounds of Ryotokuji, a temple at Samegai in Maibara, five minutes on foot from the station, which for a nationally protected tree is an unusually easy visit. Its age is worked forward rather than recorded. A survey in 1995 assessed it at about 165 years, which puts it near 195 today, while a figure attached to the 1929 designation would make it somewhat older. Somewhere between 165 and 220 years is as far as the evidence goes, and that is young for a famous ginkgo. The girth is a similar mess. The original 1929 measurement of 2.5 metres is still repeated by tourism pages today, while the 1995 remeasurement gives 4.3 metres. Trees grow; registers do not. It stands about 20 metres tall. Go between August and November and the seeds are there to find, sitting on leaf edges where no seed belongs. It is a small oddity to hang a national designation on, and it is also the entire reason the designation exists.