Ginkgo: An evolutionary and cultural biography

Abstract
Perhaps the world’s most distinctive tree, Ginkgo has remained stubbornly unchanged for more than two hundred million years. A living link to the age of dinosaurs, it survived the great Ice Ages as a relic in China, but it earned its reprieve when people first found it useful about a thousand years ago. Today, Ginkgo is beloved for the elegance of its leaves, prized for its edible nuts and revered for its longevity. This talk will highlight the cultural and social significance of Ginkgo: its medicinal and nutritional uses, its power as a source of artistic and religious inspiration, and its importance as one of the world’s most popular street trees.

About Professor Sir Peter Crane FRS
Peter Crane is Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. His work focuses on the diversity of plant life – its origin, fossil history, current status, conservation and use. In 1999 he was appointed Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 2006 he became the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor at The University of Chicago, before being appointed at Yale in 2009. Peter Crane was elected to the Royal Society – the UK academy of sciences in 1998 and was knighted for services to horticulture and conservation in 2004. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the German Academy Leopoldina.