How does ginko care for us?

Meet Black Tupelo near a watery place: pond, swamp, creek.  They loves to get their feet wet.  Black Tupelo’s roots have adapted to live in often flooded environments, and they have a swollen buttressing base with a tapering trunk. Their long tap root thrusts through the thick, claylike soils, making them very strong and thus very long lived. Similarly this long tap root that doesn’t mind compacted soils makes it easy for them to grow in urban environments with poor drainage.

You can recognize them from her branches growing at wide angles along the trunk. One of the consequences of this is that these often crooked branches are more susceptible to weight and strain and can break off easily, leading to lesions in the trunk.  Many beings choose her trunk for refuge: bees, owls, birds, racoons, bats and many other beings.

Their flowers are followed by dark blue drupes that lure flocks of birds and other creatures in the early fall when other tree fruits are still green  Their foliage turns almost fluorescent purples and reds in the fall, perhaps a beacon to draw beings to their fruits, whose fat content is among the highest in any tree fruit and an essential food source for migrating fall songbirds who need to fatten up for their long journey.