You may recognize the scientific name Ginkgo biloba, even if you haven’t seen the tree it belongs to. Ginkgo extracts can be found in nutritional supplements, shampoos, energy drinks, and many other products.

Right now is the perfect time to look for the plant itself—its fan-shaped leaves turn bright yellow in fall, and female ginkgo trees drop their smelly fruits.

The ginkgo is one of our most unusual trees. Here’s why:

1. It’s a prehistoric relic. To find the earliest plant that looked like a ginkgo, you’d have to go back over 200 million years. More modern-looking ginkgoes were widespread during the Jurassic period. However, they’d died back to just one region of China by the time the first people walked the planet.

But these days, the ginkgo can once more be found all over the world, because…

2. It tolerates cities well. People like planting it in urban areas because pests generally avoid it, and it’s tolerant of pollution, storms, and compacted soil. You’ll find the ginkgo lining streets all over the world, from Tokyo to New York City.

3. It has unique leaves. The ginkgo is also a popular city tree because of its elegant foliage—its leaves are wedge-shaped, with veins fanning out from a central point. In autumn, they turn a brilliant yellow.

Unlike maples and other colorful fall trees, ginkgoes often drop their leaves within a short period; sometimes most of them fall during a single day. Keep an eye out for this tumbling golden display or watch a short video of it on our Facebook page.

4. It has stinky fruit. In autumn, you may smell a ginkgo before you see one. The female plants produce fruit whose stench has been likened to rotten cheese. This smell is so pungent that many plant nurseries will only sell male plants, which don’t make fruit.

Some scientists suggest that this odor once attracted mammals (or even dinosaurs) that liked spoiled meat. These now-extinct creatures would have eaten the fruit and spread the seeds.

Is there a beautiful—and maybe stinky—ginkgo tree in your neighborhood?

Photo © paddockcafe/flickr

As the trees lose their foliage, you may begin to notice large, round clumps of leaves in the branches. These are squirrel nests—also known as dreys.

In Massachusetts, eastern gray squirrels, red squirrels, and northern and southern flying squirrels all make dreys.

Eastern Gray Squirrel Nests

Eastern grays are large squirrels that thrive in urban and suburban environments. Not surprisingly, they make the biggest, most obvious nests. These structures can be a foot or two wide, and are usually located 20 feet or higher up a tree that provides good squirrel food, like an acorn-bearing oak. For stability, they’re built near the trunk or at the fork of two strong branches.

These scraggly-looking nests consist of leafy branches, with an inner layer of soft material like moss and pine needles. The squirrels enter the drey through a hole facing the trunk.

If you think that a ball of leaves in a tree sounds like a chilly place to spend the winter, you’re right. Eastern gray squirrels use dreys in summer, but they prefer to spend the cold months in a more protected place, like a tree cavity or an attic. (We’ve got tips for dealing with squirrels in your house.) If such permanent shelter isn’t available, they’ll stick with a drey, often gathering together to conserve heat.

Eastern gray squirrels use nests for shelter and warmth, especially at night, but they don’t hibernate in them—in fact, they don’t hibernate at all! They stay active year-round, searching for food that they hid during warmer weather. Also, one of their two mating seasons is in January and February.

Other Squirrel Nests

Red squirrels, which enjoy nibbling on pine cones, will often build their dreys in conifers. Like eastern grays, they’re active in the winter, and they also prefer tree cavities and other more permanent shelters during the cold months—but they’ll make do with tree nests if they have to.

The shy, secretive northern and southern flying squirrels also stay in dreys when cavities are scarce. They’ll either build their own, or use an abandoned bird’s nest or other squirrel’s nest.

Are there any squirrel drays in your neighborhood?