‘Like dog poop’: Historic NS garden gets stinky surprise from tree

For 40 years, staff at the Annapolis Royal Historic Garden in Nova Scotia thought their ginkgo tree was male.

Then they got a very smelly surprise earlier this year.

Male ginkgoes are usually the only species of tree sold commercially because female ginkgoes produce fruit-like seeds that release a noticeable odor when they fall to the ground and are crushed under people’s feet.

“It has a really unpleasant smell,” said Trish Fry, manager of the gardens. “Something like dog feces or rancid butter or even compare it to vomit. I think that’s quite cruel.”

Fry knows the smell because the seeds unexpectedly appeared in the park this year for the first time since the trees were planted in the early 1980s.

A visitor pointed out the seeds to the staff, who initially dismissed the suggestion that they were coming from gingko.

“We said ‘No, no, it doesn’t because it’s male and we’ve never eaten fruit on the tree,'” Fry told CBC News.

However, staff, including the historical park’s horticulturist, took a closer look and determined that the tree was in fact female.

They also learned that ginkgo trees can take decades to fully mature, Fry said.

He joked, “You’ve been living with ginkgo for 40 years, but then suddenly you realize it’s not exactly what you thought.”

Ashley Viola, horticulturist for the historic gardens, was as surprised as anyone, but she said this isn’t the first time the wrong species of ginkgo was planted by mistake.

Montreal-area resident He called on the local municipal government to replace his female-ginko tree Which was unknowingly planted on his property and was producing stinky fruit-like seeds.

Viola said ginkgo is so popular because of its beautiful leaves and colors. In the fall, he said, the leaves turn from green to bright yellow and then fall together, leaving colorful carpets on the ground.

Ginkgoes are known for their beauty as well as their resiliency, Viola said. He said it was the only species of its kind left.

“One of the most interesting things about them is that we call them living fossils,” he said. “The Ginkgo tree is the tree that survived the dinosaurs.”

For those reasons, the manager of the historic gardens said there are no plans to remove the female ginkgo tree.

Fry said the seeds fortunately don’t fall during the peak tourist season in the summer, but anyone who visits will know what to expect once they’re on the ground.

,We will tell people they should come and see it and maybe wear a nose plug,” she said.

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