[NAFEX] Stinky ginkgo trees gotta go, says pol

Lon Rombough lonrom at hevanet.com
Wed Dec 15 23:47:38 EST 2004


FWIW, the main ingredient in gingko fruit that makes the smell is 
butyric acid, which is also the smell of rancid butter.  Years ago, 
there was a product for beekeepers called "Bee Go" that was used to 
drive bees out of sections of the hive that were to be removed, and it 
was mainly butyric acid.  I had used that product before I ever 
encountered gingko fruit, and when I first smelled it, I thought, "why 
does this smell so familiar?" until it came to me where I'd smelled it 
before.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at 
http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association 
"Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Dec 15, 2004, at 6:51 PM, list at ginda.us wrote:

It is funny.  I ran into a load of gingko fruits this year for the 
first time.  It was a cold day, and they littered the ground under one 
tree in a row of gingkos.  (The others are male, I suppose).  I didn't 
notice any odor, but I'd heard that they smelled bad, so I picked one 
up and sniffed it.  Pheww!  Smelled like vomit, and I dropped it right 
away.

I hadn't noticed the smell out in the open, when most of the fruits 
were frozen, but after I got in the car, the flesh on my shoes started 
to defrost, and the odor followed me until I scraped the pulp off of my 
shoes.  I don't know if I'd cut down a mature tree, but I don't think 
I'll plant a female gingko in my yard, either.  And I'll be careful not 
to step on the fruits, too.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 1478 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/private/nafex/attachments/20041215/184dd991/attachment.bin 


More information about the nafex mailing list