
A male ginkgo drops almost nothing but one spectacular leaf fall — it abscises its entire canopy within a day or two of the first hard freeze, usually mid-to-late November here, so it is one rake instead of six weeks of them. Female trees are the actual problem: fleshy seed coats land in October, smell like rancid butter or vomit because of butyric acid, and get tracked indoors on shoes.
50 to 75 ft tall with a 50 to 60 ft spread at maturity, and it will outlive the house — ginkgos routinely pass 200 years and the species includes individuals over 1,000. Because growth is slow, most ginkgos on central Indiana lots are still a low-to-mid bracket removal; a fully mature one over a roof is a crane job.