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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Stinky ginkgo trees gotta go, says pol

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  • From: Lon Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Stinky ginkgo trees gotta go, says pol
  • Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 20:47:38 -0800

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@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.


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