Thus sayeth Mike, Eat not of the fruit of the tree in the center of Norwood Boulevard.

Lesson learned yesterday: beautiful trees aren't always your friends. At 34th Street and Norwood Blvd. there is a female gingko biloba tree, very rare, that produces a small, round, smelly fruit that is on the ground now.

Me: "So will eating or making a tea of this fruit improve my memory?"
Mike Helms: "No. But it may kill you!"

Me: "Oh."

My ensuing laughter shows you my dark sense of humor. Mike Helms (no relation to the late Senator, Jesse) is an unapologetic botany enthusiast. In the span of about 30 minutes I got many times more information on the day to day workings of the greenery I walk past everyday than a biology degree and a lifelong interest in science ever provided. It helps when you love something, and Mike loves green, growing things. Turns out this ginkgo tree is rare because the smelly fruit causes people to not plant female species, so the Boulevard has yet another distinction to it's name. Even the shape of the gingko leaf figures into neighborhood architecture history: the ginkgo leaf was a common motif in the Art Nouveau/ Art Deco movement that influenced architecture and home fashions when many of the homes in Norwood, Forest Park, and Bush Blvd were built.

Mike has agreed to regularly make readers privy to the deep wellspring of botany knowledge he has amassed here on UrbUps-Intown Green. We plan video and printable description you can use in planning your garden and yard. For now though stay away from Gingko fruit and stick to the in store extracts.