Twin, towering ginkgo biloba trees fill the sky on a recent Sunday with their fluttering fan-like leaves, now a golden hue as autumn’s presence builds. Sharing their space along Old Virginia Street at Port Town Lane in Urbanna is a nearly bare sycamore tree, farther along in its fall transformation. Ginkgos are called a living fossil, dating back 270 million years to the age of dinosaurs. They were thought extinct until some were discovered growing in the 1800s at a remote Chinese monastery, where monks had nurtured them over the centuries to take advantage of their believed medicinal properties. They later became an ornamental tree planted around the world. (Photo by Don Richeson)
“Living fossils” grace Urbanna boulevard; herald changing seasons
