Rachael is seen standing near
the trunk of a large individual of the living
fossil tree Ginkgo biloba L., the ginkgo, located near the entrance
to the
Mediterranean Greenhouse and Climatron. This Chinese tree, with fan-shaped
leaves, is often said to have been saved from extinction by the Chinese people,
who admired it enough to plant it alongside numerous temples in the
countryside. The ginkgo appeared in the fossil record as long as about
220 million years ago, and continued to thrive alongside the dinosaurs, even
surviving their extinction 65 million years ago. Its seeds may even have been
spread by those giant reptiles. The ginkgo became extinct in North America
before the Ice Ages, but survived in China.
