A ginkgo, also called ginkgo biloba, is a tree that doesn’t look much like any other. It’s the best known of Chinese trees, a deciduous conifer that is also a living fossil. These days, ginkgos are mostly cultivated, not wild, and they are often decorative trees planted on the street. The word ginkgo passed through Japanese before getting to English, but the Chinese name means “silver apricot.” The misspelling gingko is common because it resembles the pronunciation.