The photo on the right is a rare sight in San Francisco. The Ginkgo tree has leaves that turn yellow in the late fall and usually blow off in the wind. San Francisco rarely has rain during the period when Ginkgo leaves fall. This year was an exception with heavy rain in early December, bringing the leaves to the ground in big clumps, forming a carpet of Ginkgo leaves. All these trees are male. The female bears fruit that stinks.
Not much to say about the Ginkgo, it is beautiful, the tree was first brought to Holland in 1712 after being found in Japan where it had been preserved by Buddhist monks as part of a thousand year old tradition. The tree came from some part of India where the tree had survived many ice ages. The tree is one of the earliest, with fossils of the leaves dating to 270 million years ago.