Paleontologists classify ginkgo biloba as one of the world’s few “living fossils,” a species of tree largely unchanged for eons, and for the last several thousand years revered by Buddhists and Confucians. This hardy plant thrives in the smoggy, polluted cities of Asia, and, thanks to the radiation-resistant properties that stem from its high antioxidant content, was virtually the only living thing to survive within a half-mile radius of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic blast.
Ginkgo biloba can also lay claim to being the source of the one of the most famous and widely used medicinal herbs in the world.