This ginkgo does not turn gold until January. In cooler countries the species is bare by late November, but this one stands at sea level in a subtropical city, and the warmth holds its leaves green for weeks longer, so the colour arrives in deep winter when nobody is looking up. It grows outside the Geology Science Building at National Taiwan University, beside a dawn redwood. Somebody chose that pairing on purpose. Both trees get called living fossils, which is a dry joke to plant at the door of a building where people spend their days reading rock. Ginkgo is uncommon in lowland Taiwan, and a full grown one on an open campus with nothing between you and it is worth the walk on its own. The campus keeps that walk short: the Common Three Pines stand a few minutes away on the same road, so the two stops read as one afternoon. The age is the gap in this entry. Figures circulate, from a few decades to a planting under Japanese rule, and none of them holds up when you go looking for the source behind it, so the field stays empty rather than filled with whichever number we like best. If you know when this tree went in, tell us and it goes on the page.
Autumn colour
January, when the lowland heat finally lets it turn gold
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
In front of the Geology Science Building, National Taiwan University main campus, near Zhoushan Road, Da'an District, TaipeiYou can recognise it by the dawn redwood planted next to it outside the Geology Science Building, and by turning gold in January rather than in autumn.
Free. Open university campus with no gate or admission fee.
NTU main campus; roughly 10-15 minute walk from Gongguan MRT Station (Songshan-Xindian Line) or Taipower Building MRT Station. Close to the Common Three Pines, an easy joint stop on the same campus walk.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.