“Ginkgo is a gymnosperm and does not produce flowers; however, they are dioecious with separate male and female trees. Male plants produce small pollen cones with sporophylls. Female plants produce ovules at the end of a stalk. Fertilization occurs via motile sperm, as in cycads, ferns, mosses and algae.”
Even if you incorrectly call ginkgos’ unprotected seeds “flowers” (which are definitionally limited to the angiosperms), what I didn’t discuss earlier – because the “flower” thing was a more obvious indication the writer had no idea what they were talking about and because my research turned up nothing – is that I did try to find any scientific literature about ancient insects pollinating ginkgos. I found nothing, and given they assert this entirely without evidence (or even identifying the insect), it seems like they misremembered or straight-up fabricated it.
“Ginkgo is a gymnosperm and does not produce flowers; however, they are dioecious with separate male and female trees. Male plants produce small pollen cones with sporophylls. Female plants produce ovules at the end of a stalk. Fertilization occurs via motile sperm, as in cycads, ferns, mosses and algae.”
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ginkgo-biloba/
So yeah they don’t have flowers but they do have cones-that-hold-pollen, so idk that sounds kinda like a flower to me but I’m not a biologist.
Even if you incorrectly call ginkgos’ unprotected seeds “flowers” (which are definitionally limited to the angiosperms), what I didn’t discuss earlier – because the “flower” thing was a more obvious indication the writer had no idea what they were talking about and because my research turned up nothing – is that I did try to find any scientific literature about ancient insects pollinating ginkgos. I found nothing, and given they assert this entirely without evidence (or even identifying the insect), it seems like they misremembered or straight-up fabricated it.
We have evidence of ancient insects pollinating ancient gymnosperms. We have no evidence that I know of or could find that 1) ancient insects pollinated ginkgos and 2) died off such that ginkgos had to rely solely on non-insect means.