Brooklyn, NY – Please stop planting trees that make our sidewalks smell like puke.
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That’s the plaintive cry from city residents about ginkgo trees that have fruit so foul it can make you gag.
About 200 of the offending arbors were put in sidewalk strips this spring as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Million Trees campaign.
They provide lots of shade — and plenty of putrid and mildly poisonous berries that outraged homeowners are picking off their cars and stoops.
The golf-ball-sized fruit starts falling in September, creating a fetid odor that smell rotting eggs and vomit.
City Parks Department officials have defended the practice, saying ginkgos resist diseases and pests and provide more oxygen than most other varieties.
put the trees where the city officials live!
Do the City Parks Department officials have ginkgo trees in their front yards??!
its a good thing i dont live in brooklyn
There are a lot of kids in Brooklyn. What happens when a child eats these berries?? Are we all going to be calling the Poison Control Center or calling Hatzalah or running to the ER???? Do NOT plant these smelly trees!!!
If they would plant only the male trees it would not be a problem. Only the female trees have the smelly dropping seeds.
“City Parks Department officials have defended the practice, saying ginkgos resist diseases and pests and provide more oxygen than most other varieties.”
Of course it resists pests… It resists humans too
And of course it provides more oxygen, everyone hold their breath when walking by. Hence more oxygen!
I pass 45 th 16 and 17 ave. u have this tree there for years and it stinks. I wish they would cut it down and now they are planting more. Mr Hikind u got rid of the island help to get rid of this tree. This really stinks.
Gingkos have male and female trees. The females drop those horrible fruits – males have same characteristics but no fruit – obviously no one in NY planting dept. knows trees as they say a tree grows in brooklyn…..
The whole program stinks. It is one of many things that Dictator Bloomberg imposes on his constituents. So many people have been penalized unfairly, with trees planted on their private property, cited for incomplete work by the city, etc. It is another way that Bloomberg is sticking it to New Yorkers.
Wait- where are they getting the money for this? TANSTAAFL- there aint no such thing as free lunch. Why is this the governments job to plant trees? why are they spending money doing this? Did I vote on this???
it is illegal to plant the female ginko tree in nyc.
the fruits are not harmful; they are good for the memory.
i often see people collecting them (usually Chinese).
John Galt, the city is responsible for trees between the sidewalk and the street. That’s good news for homeowners when such trees need to be cut down. Since the average life of a street tree is quite short (7 years sticks in my mind), there needs to be a replacement program. Bloomberg has pushed for an increase in the number of street trees because they’re good for the environment.
doc is correct. I’ve seen an elderly Chinese woman collecting them near Murrow High School. While the smell is unpleasant, it’s only one of many unpleasant smells in NYC. The problem with planting male trees is that they produce pollen. Many cities have planted predominantly male trees of various species, and the result is an increase in pollen and allergic reactions to it.
One article I read says you can’t tell a male gingko from a female gingko until it’s of reproductive age (about 30 years old) unless you do DNA testing. Since DNA testing wasn’t widely available 30 years ago, all the female trees that currently produce fruit were planted without knowing their sex. The NY Post article seems to assume that the trees recently planted will produce fruit. I suspect the city is only planting male trees.
The first time in my life I hear of such a thing as a male and female tree.. Interesting. Am I the only ignorant one here?
Sorry – no such mitzvah as tikun olam. Nothing wrong with planting the right trees, but this is absurd.
This whole article is irrelevant, there is no way of knowing before if it’s male or female.
Of course you can’t tell a male from a female tree. But most if not all Ginkgos are scions of named cultivars, and a scion of a male tree will be male. Maybe the people providing trees didn’t bother with the cost of grafting and just planted seeds, which created a problem they must have known would arise ten years later.
Good for memory???The stench is so strong I “forget” what even Brooklyn air smells like.
I used to live in a town (lakewood), where there was no need to plant trees, they grew everywhere! Alas, with the huge demand for “affordable” townhomes starting at “just $450k”, nearly every tree in down has been hacked down. i would rather a stinky tree at this point, then no tree a’tall!
They produce more oxygen??? From what? CARBON DIOXIDE!!! So CO2 is good because the plants convert it to oxygen?!? Proof against Liberal Hypocrisy!
dont you see, they dont care what the residents think. they do as they please.
trees, bike lanes, cement islands etc.
i think its called dictatorship!
shooki: The flowers you probably learned about in school have both male and female parts. Some plants (like squash) have separate male and female flowers. Some other plants (like gingko, holly, and box elder) have separate male and female organisms. The term for this is dioecious.
“Right” (as in wing, I assume): Congratulations on finally chapping how photosynthesis works.
Nobody says carbon dioxide is bad. And no one who’s knowledgeable says that the more carbon dioxide the better. There has to be a balance. Environmentalists decry the clearing of rain forests, which results in less photosynthesis and hence an increase in carbon dioxide and a decrease in oxygen. Burning fuels like wood, gasoline, and natural gas also creates carbon dioxide and uses up oxygen.
I grew up on that block near Murrow HS. As a kid, I always wondered who was so nauseous from their day at school that they walked down the block to throw up. It’s disgusting! I would physically hold my nose, or cross the street and go out of my way to avoid this awful stench. And yes, I also remember the chinese women collecting the fruit. I’m glad I live in Monsey where the tree smell I have is freshly ground pine needles as you pull into the driveway!