Ginkgo survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, registry number E13a25-01 (photo from Wikimedia)

27 October 2026

In less than two weeks Pittsburgh’s ginkgo trees will turn brilliant yellow and start dropping their leaves. Their bright color will draw attention to a species that is hardly noticed the rest of the year. If you’re lucky, you’ll see a single ginkgo drop all its leaves in one day.

Ginkgos (Ginkgo biloba) are hardy trees that are often planted in cities because they cope well with air pollution and with confined root systems. In fact they are far hardier than we imagine. When the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945 six ginkgo trees survived, burnt on the outside like charcoal but still standing.

The following spring they budded and produced leaves and ultimately seeds. They are still alive today and their descendants are planted around the world as trees of hope and peace. One of the survivor trees is pictured at top. Here are the other five.

Ginkgo survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, registry numbers E17a37-01 and E18a41-02 (photos from Wikimedia)

Ginkgo survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, registry numbers N11a19-01 and N21a53-01 (photos from Wikimedia)

Ginkgo survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, registry number S14a28-01 (photo from Wikimedia)

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that ginkgos survived the Hiroshima A-bomb. Ginkgo biloba is the only gymnosperm to survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs(*).

Ginkgo leaves in Schenley Park, 31 Oct 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

Learn how the Hiroshima A-bomb trees survived in this 2018 article: 73 Years Later, the “A-Bomb” Ginkgo Trees Still Grow in Hiroshima.

(*) Analysis of rocks inside the Chicxulub Crater (the impact point) indicate that they came from the Oort Cloud, so it was a chunk of a comet that killed the dinosaurs (see this link).