Oldest extant tree species

The earliest surviving species of tree is the maidenhair (Ginkgo biloba) of Zhejiang, China, which first appeared about 160 million years ago during the Jurassic era. It was rediscovered by Engelbert Kaempfer (Germany) in 1690 and reached England c. 1754. It has been grown in Japan since c. 1100, where it is now known as ichou.

This plant is often referred to as "the oldest living fossil" or "oldest plant genus". Leaf imprints of ancestral species of Gingko trees have been found in sedimentary rocks of the Jurassic and Triassic periods (135–210 million years ago).