OXFORD, Ohio – The leaves of a ginkgo tree fall differently than a maple, oak, sycamore or any other tree. It’s that unique quality that professors at Miami University are using to teach students a lesson in interior design.   

What You Need To Know

  • Miami University students in Oxford are putting small flags around ginkgo trees on campus 

  • It's part of a class project to preserve the leaves as they're expected to turn yellow and drop all at once

  • One professor is using what happens to ginkgo trees as a way to teach students about interior design and the environment

Ginkgo trees lose their leaves all at once, and it’s a phenomenon that Miami professor Terry Welker wants students to note. 

“I’m always taking students around campus walking, looking, seeing, observing, because as architects and interior designers, we have to figure out how to understand the place that we’re in,” said Welker, a visiting assistant professor of architecture and interior design at the Oxford campus. 

He has students use flags to mark and preserve the leaves that fall from the ginkgo trees. They’re putting them down all at once, just like the ginkgo will soon do to show them the art of nature. 

“In Ohio, where we’ve got such rich fall colors, they easily get forgotten or lost in the mix of all the other beautiful fall colors, but this is the only species you’re going to get what I call the magic carpet, so when they fall, you have this beautiful magic carpet to enjoy for a little while because it’s just one giant golden magic carpet,” said Welker. 

Amelia Cooper is a first-year student at Miami University studying interior design. A flag, a tree, and the weather help her understand it.

“It’s cool to learn about the areas that you will be putting, buildings and like the cedar and surrounding, so I think it’s important to learn like about any place you’re putting stuff,” said Cooper.

She’s one of about 90 students keeping a close eye on the weather, waiting for a good cold snap. It signals that all the leaves from the ginkgo tree to drop at the same time.

He expects the leaves to all fall at the same time as it did last year, around November 7th. They're encouraging students to make, write and focus their experience around the ginkgo tree leaf drop.