Leaves
The leaves are unique among seed plants, being fan-shaped with veins radiating out into the leaf blade, sometimes bifurcating (splitting), but never anastomosing to form a network. Two veins enter the leaf blade at the base and fork repeatedly in two; this is known as dichotomous venation. The leaves are usually 5–10 cm (2-4 in), but sometimes up to 15 cm (6 in) long. The old popular name "maidenhair tree" is because the leaves resemble some of the pinnae of the maidenhair fern, Adiantum capillus-veneris.
Leaves of long shoots are usually notched or lobed, but only from the outer surface, between the veins. They are borne both on the more rapidly growing branch tips, where they are alternate and spaced out, and also on the short, stubby spur shoots, where they are clustered at the tips.
Read more about this topic: Ginkgo Biloba
Famous quotes containing the word leaves:
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“Free verse leaves out the meter and makes up
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Free verse, so called, is really cherished prose....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“They felt the rush of the sap in the spring, they knew the wave which cannot halt, but every year throws forward the seed to begetting, and, falling back, leaves the unborn on the earth. They knew the intercourse between heaven and earth.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)