The park in Granite City, Illinois has several Gingko trees, also commonly called "Maidenhair" because of the distinctive shape of the leaves. We had a large one near the rear door of our parsonage in Metropolis, Illinois. The leaves turn a beautiful golden yellow in the fall, and it was our experience that they would fall all in one day, usually in mid- to late November. The tree is a hardy survivor with some in China reputed to be 1500 years old. It is also called "a living fossil" as one of the oldest known trees, dating back 270 million years. One rather unique characteristic is that the tree comes in two sexes, male and female, with the female having fruit in the fall that has an unmistakable odor. It seemed as though we had a dog kennel in the back yard in the fall. Pretty leaves...