Ginkgo Tree

Ginkgo trees are living fossils whose distinctive fan-shaped leaves appear unchanged in fossils dating back 200 million years. The genus once spread across the Northern Hemisphere; fossils appear on every northern continent. Then ginkgos retreated, vanishing from the fossil record everywhere except China. They survived into the modern era only because Buddhist monks cultivated them in temple gardens for over 1,000 years. Without human intervention, ginkgos would likely be extinct.

The ginkgo's survival illustrates accidental preservation. Monks didn't cultivate ginkgos to preserve a species - they valued the trees for shade, beauty, and medicinal seeds. The trees' evolutionary persistence was a side effect of cultural preference. When Western botanists 'discovered' ginkgos in the 18th century, they unknowingly found a species that had been kept alive by human selection after natural selection would have eliminated it.

For business, ginkgo represents products or services preserved by customer loyalty rather than competitive advantage. Some offerings persist not because they're superior but because accumulated users, cultural attachment, or switching costs maintain demand. Legacy software, traditional retailers, and heritage brands often survive as ginkgos - their natural competitive viability is questionable, but human preference sustains them. The danger is assuming preserved demand indicates competitive health. Ginkgos survive in temple gardens, not wild forests.