apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

very pretty. we have a tree outside our home but the berries have an unpleasant smell to them.

We always called them ginko stinkos. Don't think I can get past the memory of the smell...

Yes, "unpleasant smell" is a nice way of putting it. I stepped on one on a visit to Philly and had to leave my shoes out on the porch.

Viva Terra has a really nice metal wall piece of a ginko branch, but I could live without their prices.

Only the female trees produce the malodorous fruit ... and it can take 30 years before a tree is old enough to produce fruit, so you often don't know what you're planting! The nuts are an Asian delicacy, and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden is full off them every year (and of people scavenging)!

I have this ginkgo print hanging in my kitchen from Bold and Noble:

http://boldandnoble.com/prints/04_Ginkgo/Yellow_moss

I'm with those who find the stench so unbearable that I can't get past it to appreciate them. My mom's work had a bunch out in front and the inescapable vomit odor is a firmly fixed childhood memory.

The comments above illustrate perfectly how we attach our own memory/personal experience to objects turning them into symbols for those positive or negative experiences. A thing as simple as a ginko leaf can be a symbol of natural beauty for some, or symbol of noxious odor for others. Neither experience is any less valid and all of our experiences make us who we are. This also illustrates why we should only surround ourselves in our personal space with items that symbolize things we love and feel positive about. It's one of my favorite topics of discussion. Isn't it great how we all can react so wildly different to something as inane as a leaf?
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

@ jane: it's ironic that the female trees are responsible, since the odor is so decidedly...male.