page_title: Ginkgo biloba
section_title: Rise and decline
hierarchical_section_title: Ginkgo biloba / History / Rise and decline
caption_attribution_description: Ginkgo biloba Eocene fossil leaf from the Tranquille Shale of MacAbee, British Columbia, Canada
context_page_description: Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is a very old species, with some fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food.
context_section_description: Fossils attributable to the genus Ginkgo first appeared in the Early Jurassic. One of the earliest fossils ascribed to the Ginkgophyta is Trichopitys, distinguished by having multiple-forked leaves with cylindrical (not flattened), thread-like ultimate divisions. The genus Ginkgo diversified and spread throughout Laurasia during the middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
  The Ginkgophyta declined in diversity as the Cretaceous progressed, and by the Paleocene, Ginkgo adiantoides was the only Ginkgo species left in the Northern Hemisphere, while a markedly different (and poorly documented) form persisted in the Southern Hemisphere. Along with that of ferns, cycads, and cycadeoids, the species diversity in the genus Ginkgo drops through the Cretaceous, at the same time the flowering plants were on the rise; this supports the hypothesis that, over time, flowering plants with better adaptations to disturbance displaced Ginkgo and its associates.
  At the end of the Pliocene, Ginkgo fossils disappeared from the fossil record everywhere except in a small area of central China, where the modern species survived.
caption: Ginkgo biloba leaf from the Eocene epoch from the McAbee fossil beds, BC, Canada.
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