Gingko Petrified Forest

I yakked on the Columbia this morning. Jenny stayed in. After that we visited the State Park visitor center. It was there we saw the mountain goats. After that we did a hike in the park to see some of the petrified wood. There are 30 tree species that are petrified. The park is named after the Gingko and that tree deserves some discussion. It is a living fossil. There are 200 million year old fossils of the leaves of that tree. It has been virtually unchanged since then. The female tree produces nuts that smell like vomit. The animals that it evolved with, that disbursed it's seeds, all went extinct. It nearly did. Some of the trees were growing wild in China in the 1600's and because of human intervention they survived. They are now grown everywhere. They are exceedingly tough and long lived. They are a popular urban street tree because they can handle the crud that that type of tree needs to handle. Our local nurseries only sell male trees for obvious reasons. One more interesting bit about the Gingko: There are 5 living groups of seed plants and the Gingko is one of them. The Gingko is the only one that consists of just one species.  It is not obviously related to any other living plant. Cool huh?