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Ginkgoaceae Engl.

Ginkgo Family

Synonyms
  • Salisburiaceae Link, nom. illeg.
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Family Overview

Ginkgoaceae Engl., the Ginkgo Family, is a monotypic family of gymnosperm trees containing one accepted genus, Ginkgo L., and one accepted species, Ginkgo biloba L. The single species is commonly called ginkgo or the maidenhair-tree. It is a large deciduous woody tree with true secondary growth, differentiated long and short shoots, fan-shaped leaves, exposed stalked ovules, and motile sperm (Lin et al. 2022; Plants of the World Online 2026; World Flora Online 2026).

Ginkgoaceae belongs to Ginkgoales Gorozh. and represents the sole surviving branch of an order that was formerly much more diverse. Modern phylogenomic analyses generally place the ginkgo lineage as sister to cycads collectively, with both lineages separate from the classical conifers and gnetophytes (Wu et al. 2013; Ran et al. 2018; Liu et al. 2022).

Historically, Ginkgo was sometimes grouped broadly with conifers or placed near yews because it is a woody gymnosperm with exposed ovules and seeds. Modern classification recognizes it in its own family and order. Some systems display the hierarchy through Ginkgoidae, Ginkgoopsida, and Ginkgophyta, while others compress those upper ranks; the family itself remains stable (Christenhusz et al. 2011; Yang et al. 2022).

Ginkgoaceae can be recognized by the following combined features:

  • Large deciduous tree habit;
  • Branches differentiated into long shoots and short shoots;
  • Simple, petiolate, usually fan-shaped leaves;
  • Repeatedly forked, mostly open venation;
  • Separate pollen- and ovule-bearing individuals in most cases;
  • Compact pollen cones;
  • Exposed ovules borne on stalks;
  • Seeds with a soft outer sarcotesta and hard sclerotesta; and
  • Multiciliate sperm.

The mature seed is often called a fruit in horticultural and culinary contexts, but the family produces no flowers, ovaries, or true fruits. The fleshy outer covering is part of the seed coat.

Family-level fossil circumscription is less uniform than the extant treatment. Some fossil plants assigned to Ginkgoales are placed within a broadly interpreted Ginkgoaceae, whereas others are separated into extinct families centered on distinctive reproductive structures. The extant family circumscription remains narrow even when fossil species especially close to the genus Ginkgo are discussed as contextual evidence (Zhou 2009).

The leaves of Ginkgoaceae are unmistakable, but fossil fan-shaped leaves do not automatically belong to the family. Organ-genera such as Ginkgoites, Baiera, and Sphenobaiera describe fossil foliage and may represent plants outside the narrow family. Reproductive structures, cuticles, shoots, and anatomical association are required for stronger placement.

Ginkgo biloba is native to China, although centuries of cultivation have obscured the limits of the original natural range. Human planting has made Ginkgoaceae globally familiar in temperate and subtropical cities, parks, campuses, temple grounds, and botanical gardens (Tang et al. 2012; Zhao et al. 2019).

Horticultural and Agricultural Uses

Ginkgo biloba is planted extensively as a street tree, shade tree, specimen, memorial tree, and historic landscape plant. Its distinctive foliage and golden autumn color make it one of the most recognizable ornamental gymnosperms.

Named cultivars vary in crown form, mature size, branching, leaf shape, variegation, and growth rate. Pollen-bearing cultivars are often selected for paved public spaces because they do not produce soft-coated seeds. Ovule-bearing trees remain essential for reproduction, conservation, cultural landscapes, botanical education, and edible-seed production.

Ginkgo grows best in sunny sites with adequate rooting volume and well-drained soil. It tolerates many urban stresses once established, including moderate drought, air pollution, and some salinity, but prolonged waterlogging and poorly aerated soils can impair performance (Lin et al. 2022; Matsuura et al. 2026).

Prepared seed kernels have culinary uses in East Asia. Leaves are harvested for standardized extracts and other commercial products. Raw or excessive seed consumption can be toxic, and concentrated leaf products should not be assumed safe or medically effective merely because they are plant-derived (Liu et al. 2022; National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health 2025).

Conservation Issues

Ginkgo biloba is assessed as Endangered despite being widely cultivated. The apparent paradox results from the difference between global horticultural abundance and the conservation of natural populations, provenance, genetic structure, and ecological relationships (Forest et al. 2018; Plants of the World Online 2026).

Population-genomic research identified multiple refugial components and repeated demographic expansion, contraction, and admixture within China. Plastome data from the Sichuan Basin further recovered differentiated maternal lineages, including a newly documented haplotype associated with western basin populations (Zhao et al. 2019; Nie et al. 2025).

Conservation priorities include:

  • Protecting relict or naturally regenerating populations in situ;
  • Preserving multiple nuclear and maternal lineages;
  • Documenting geographic provenance;
  • Maintaining both pollen- and ovule-bearing individuals;
  • Reducing dependence on a small set of ornamental clones; and
  • Coordinating botanical-garden and arboretum collections.

No modern species extinction has been recorded within Ginkgoaceae. Extinction of Ginkgo biloba would eliminate the entire extant family and the last living representative of Ginkgoales.

Accepted Genera
Ginkgo L. (1771) Ginkgo

Additional Information

References and Further Reading

Christenhusz MJM, Reveal JL, Farjon A, Gardner MF, Mill RR, Chase MW (2011) A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa 19(1): 55–70. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.19.1.3

Forest F, Moat J, Baloch E, Brummitt NA, Bachman SP, Ickert-Bond S, Hollingsworth PM, Liston A, Little DP, Mathews S, et al. (2018) Gymnosperms on the EDGE. Scientific Reports 8: 6053. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24365-4

Lin HY, Li WH, Lin CF, Wu HR, Zhao YP (2022) International biological flora: Ginkgo biloba. Journal of Ecology 110(4): 951–982. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13856

Liu Y, Xin H, Zhang Y, Che F, Shen N, Cui Y (2022) Leaves, seeds and exocarp of Ginkgo biloba L. (Ginkgoaceae): A comprehensive review of traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, resource utilization and toxicity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 298: 115645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2022.115645

Liu Y, Wang S, Li L, Yang T, Dong S, Wei T, Wu S, Liu Y, Gong Y, Feng X, et al. (2022) The Cycas genome and the early evolution of seed plants. Nature Plants 8(4): 389–401. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01129-7

Matsuura T, Okugawa S, Yamakita E, Kiyomizu T, Tsutsui Y, Kume A, Hanba YT (2026) Evaluation of the photosynthetic response of Ginkgo biloba as an urban tree to air pollution, soil salinity, and excess humidity. Frontiers in Plant Science 17: 1746328. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1746328

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2025) Ginkgo: Usefulness and safety. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ginkgo

Nie L, Liu F, Wang M, Jiang Z, Kong J, Tembrock LR, Kan S, Wang P, Wang J, Wu Z, et al. (2025) Plastome data provides new insights into population differentiation and evolution of ginkgo in the Sichuan Basin of China. BMC Plant Biology 25: 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-024-05977-7

Plants of the World Online (2026) Ginkgoaceae Engl. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77126769-1

Ran JH, Shen TT, Wang MM, Wang XQ (2018) Phylogenomics resolves the deep phylogeny of seed plants and indicates partial convergent or homoplastic evolution between Gnetales and angiosperms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285(1881): 20181012. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1012

Tang CQ, Yang Y, Ohsawa M, Yi SR, Momohara A, Su WH, Wang HC, Zhang ZY, Peng MC, Wu ZL (2012) Evidence for the persistence of wild Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgoaceae) populations in the Dalou Mountains, southwestern China. American Journal of Botany 99(8): 1408–1414. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.1200168

World Flora Online (2026) Ginkgoaceae Engl. World Flora Online Consortium. https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-7000000249

Wu CS, Chaw SM, Huang YY (2013) Chloroplast phylogenomics indicates that Ginkgo biloba is sister to cycads. Genome Biology and Evolution 5(1): 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evt001

Yang Y, Ferguson DK, Liu B, Mao KS, Gao LM, Zhang SZ, Wan T, Rushforth K, Zhang ZX (2022) Recent advances on phylogenomics of gymnosperms and a new classification. Plant Diversity 44(4): 340–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2022.05.003

Zhao YP, Fan G, Yin PP, Sun S, Li N, Hong X, Hu G, Zhang H, Zhang FM, Han JD, et al. (2019) Resequencing 545 ginkgo genomes across the world reveals the evolutionary history of the living fossil. Nature Communications 10: 4201. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12133-5

Zhou ZY (2009) An overview of fossil Ginkgoales. Palaeoworld 18(1): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2009.01.001