The smell wafted through the air in the October sunshine. At least one Harvard scientist has likened it to “rancid butter and vomit,” while Jennifer Iida, a spokesperson for Sacramento’s Department of General Services, called it downright “pungent and unpleasant.” It was the sweet aroma of two 75-year-old ginkgo trees in California State Capitol Park, and it’s gotten so bad, officials have taken matters into their own hands, surrounding the trees with metal barriers affixed with zip-tied and laminated signs to ward the public away.
As the Sacramento Bee first reported, the issue isn’t just the odor. It’s the slip hazard the fruit creates as it falls to the ground, which can stick to the shoes of unsuspecting passersby. Some people still are willing to brave the stench of the fruit to forage the seeds inside — they can be used for cooking or medicinal purposes, or even to grow a bonsai tree — which poses another problem as they leave the toxin-filled flesh behind.
Iida told SFGATE the trees on 14th Street and Capitol and inside a construction zone nearby at 12th and N streets were fenced off about two weeks ago, after the Department of General Services’ facilities management division “received a handful of inquiries about the odor from guests at the park.” It’s not the first time this has happened, either: Female ginkgo trees bear fruit every October and November once they reach maturity at 20 to 30 years old, and Iida confirmed the agency has “fenced the ginkgo trees in the past, depending on the fruit yield.”…