09 Trip - SE Washington ... Ginkgo

This diagram shows the layers of rock and sediment that covered the Ginkgo Forests before huge floods from the ice fields carved the Grand Coulee. Below is a diagram of the yearly floods that backed up and created Lake Lewis. The lake emptied in a week, littering the landscape with huge erratics and tearing out the gorge.

Ginkgo was once very widely distributed. Generally, it is leaves that are found fossilized. These trees in the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park is one of the few places where fossilized trees have been found.The leaves have a beauty all their own and often are found in designs on textiles.
Logs are displayed outside the museum.Ginkgo is sometimes called the 'Living Fossil'. An ancient tree, it first appeared 150 million years ago. There are no wild Ginkgo forests. It owes its existance to cultivation in Oriental Temple Gardens. It has been used for hundreds of years in medicines.
Tilford Gardens in North Vancouver have a tree that is huge - as tall as a two storied building.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba