Ginkgo

Ginkgo trees are the most commonly found trees lining Seoul's streets.

Many years ago, my elementary grade class went to the VanDusen Botanical Garden for a field trip. My Austrian friend Danny K. was with us. We marvelled at the biology. I collected yellow leaves from the Ginkgo biloba trees there. The leaves had a strange shape. Later, I put some of the yellow leaves in a book about horror movies with Frankenstein on the cover. Years later, in high school, during silent reading class, I showed Danny one of the yellow leaves pressed in the pages of my book about horror movies. With sudden anguish, Danny crumpled the yellow leaf in his hand, as if his mind started racing.

Like cycads — their gymnosperm relatives — and ferns, the ginkgo produces motile sperm. […] In fact, the tree was originally thought to be extinct in the wild until two populations were located in China. Such native ginkgos remain rare, with a preference for rich, streamside habitats.

I swear the gingko's working in reverse