Unknown Tree

[Wander]

Just been sitting outside, eating my lunch, and treated myself to a little bit of 'Name That Bird Song' and 'Name That Tree'.
I did alright for myself.
However.
There was one tree that has me stumped (as it were).
It had triangular shaped leaves and also what looked like hazelnuts around the base. But this isn't a hazel tree - too big.
There's every chance someone (or some squirrel) in the past may have sat beneath it and had a few hazels. But there were quite a few, and they were all around the tree rather than in a pile. So use the leaf as a better diagnostic.
I suspect it is a non-native species since it is located in a hospital ground with many other old, decorative, trees.
Love to know what it is...

 

[Wander]

I think I can answer my own question - I believe it is a Ginkgo/Maidenhair tree.

 

[C_Claycomb]

yup

 

[Woody girl]

Definitely a ginko biloba. Unmistakable leaves. Only ones anything like it. You are right, that is the remains of a squirrels picnic!

 

[TLM]

And with very high probability a male tree.

 

[Nice65]

Worth a read about them. They date back to an ancient genus and are associated with medicine and are often found in hospital grounds.

Ginkgo biloba - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Woody girl]

I think its often called a prehistoric tree, left over from the times of the dinosaurs. A living fossil.
Fascinating tree.

 

[forrestdweller]

when i worked in Japan they ate the roasted seeds -- not too bad tasting but iirc you're supposed to eat only small quantities...

 

[Erbswurst]

Nobody is forced to eat Sauerkraut, slugs, frogs or rotten sharks, to put reindeer into the coffee, or whatever the locals do.

Most tribes are a bit weird if you have a closer look. It isn't needed to travel too far to find the last sauvages. Usually they live right next door. In parts of Switzerland for example it's still allowed to eat dogs.

 

[TLM]

to put reindeer into the coffee

Next time you go to Lapland don't tell the people there that they are supposed to put reindeer into their coffee. They did put a lot of somewhat odd things in their coffee in the past but not reindeer.

Otherwise I agree, one is not obligated to eat everything the natives do. You forgot the most important thing from your list, Swedish "surströmming", that smell probably beats even rotten shark or at least it is a race.

 

[Erbswurst]

I will look it up if I reach the book. I think they did it in Finnish Lapland in the twenties of the last century. Some kind of meat for sure. And what if not reindeer?
We can agree to remain silent about it but if it was done, people usually continue it, so pay attention when you are there!

Somewhere in Norway they tried to sell me sheep heads at the gaslonine station, like somewhere else croissants or sausages.

Surströmming I fortunately didn't yet notice but bought by accident blood pudding of course.
Sugared cheese is also such an adventure.

But I remember that a Swiss friend was already pretty shocked when he discovered that we put sugar onto the salad and into the lentils. It seems to be more a Silesian than generally German habit.

I am too used to Italian, French and German food to notice, what is weird there, but I remember that my Czech colleagues often didn't look very happy in French harbour restaurants...

 

[Nice65]

Next time you go to Lapland don't tell the people there that they are supposed to put reindeer into their coffee. They did put a lot of somewhat odd things in their coffee in the past but not reindeer.

Otherwise I agree, one is not obligated to eat everything the natives do. You forgot the most important thing from your list, Swedish "surströmming", that smell probably beats even rotten shark or at least it is a race.

I read a novel about the Guga tradition (The Blackhouse by Peter May) where 10 men set off for a fortnight to gather Gannet chicks from the cliffs of Sulasgeir. The chicks are piled up in heaps, salted,then return with the men to the mainland. A lot of things sound horrible to eat, but not to those that have grown up with them.

Guga, similar to Kiviak.

Guga - Scottish Food Guide

Unavailable. They don’t come much more unique than the Guga, Gaelic for Gannet, harvested and prepared by a special group of 10 Ness men once a year for 2 weeks on the isle of Sùlaisgeir (Gannet Skerry), Sula being the Scandinavian word for Gannet. Sùlaisgeir is a desolate rocky isle over 40...

scottishfoodguide.com

 

[Bsco85]

Not sure if this thread has drifted off but yes, it’s a Ginko. They grow quite happily over here and are really very old, they are prehistoric relics. The atomic bombing of Japan in WW2, it was found many survived unlike anything else, they are resistant to radiation thus survived the dino’s demise. I can’t say what the timber is like as haven’t felled one but know they hate being pruned.

 

[Erbswurst]

Did we really drift off a bit?