Mystery tree with orange fruit that has pits. What am I?

[Chkn salad sandwhich]

My grandpa’s friend claimed he found a tree with these odd fruits on them. I don’t know what the leaves or bark look like. This is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I searched up trees with orange fruits, but all seemed to be tropical and shouldn’t grow up here. It could be a persimmon, but I don’t think persimmons have large pits. They’re not the right shape for cherries in my opinion. They smell pretty nasty and strong (like old cheese?), but they are also pretty dried and rotten. Has anyone seen these before?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

They're Gingko fruits, the smell tells you. They're the reason most places try to only plant MALE gingko trees. And yes, they smells just as bad fresh, if not worse (like vomit).

The Chinese like to eat the kernels inside of the pits, they apparently have a fishy taste.

 

[Chkn salad sandwhich]

They're Gingko fruits, the smell tells you. They're the reason most places try to only plant MALE gingko trees. And yes, they smells just as bad fresh, if not worse (like vomit).

The Chinese like to eat the kernels inside of the pits, they apparently have a fishy taste.

Woah, I had no idea! Thank you

 

[flowerbug]

Woah, I had no idea! Thank you

LOL me either!

i was going to say the seeds looked a bit plummy.

 

[Branching Out]

That's why the nickname for Gingko is 'Stinko'. We have what must be a male tree, and it is lovely. No fruit, and no stench.

 

[Chkn salad sandwhich]

That's why the nickname for Gingko is 'Stinko'. We have what must be a male tree, and it is lovely. No fruit, and no stench.

Fortunately, this one isn’t in our yard. I’ve heard the trees are really expensive to buy!

 

[digitS']

Dang, do you suppose that nurseries can guarantee sex?

DW has had experience and a special liking for ginkgos. There is a park, not all that far away, that has a number of the trees. We used to visit quite regularly and, about 5 or 6 years ago, collected some seeds.

Not me, I knew of the smell problem although it didn't seem all that bad there in the park with fruit scattered all about. DW plunked the seed into a flower bed in the backyard. We have had a small tree beginning the next year. It's a pretty thing but certainly grows slowly. I haven't paid much attention to it and have no idea about it flowering. Perhaps it is a potential problem but I doubt if it will be a very large problem.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

if an expensive tree takes a long time to reach adult size and you want a certain sex then i could see where a genetic test would be worth the money to develop because you sure would not want to put many years into growing something that someone else would not want.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Dang, do you suppose that nurseries can guarantee sex?

Usually, yes. They use cuttings, and a tree grown from a cutting will be the same gender as the tree it was cut from.

The catch is that there ARE sometimes cases of trees reversing genders for various reasons (age, damage, disease), or no reason at all. That's usually where most of the females come from (that or being from before they had a way to tell tree gender BEFORE it reached fruiting age, so the female was too big to remove when they found out. Now, they can probably work it out from a leaf sample)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

if an expensive tree takes a long time to reach adult size and you want a certain sex then i could see where a genetic test would be worth the money to develop because you sure would not want to put many years into growing something that someone else would not want.

One wonders if, at some point, we can refine this testing to determine fruit quality in trees in advance. If we could work out which genes code for which compounds and amounts in a given species fruit, one could take a sample from a seed grown tree when it was still a tiny sapling and determine what the fruit should taste like. That could save space since you could know in advance which seedlings were worth turning into grafts for development into new varieties.