Only female ginkgo trees bear fruit and stink. If you find a stinky one that was planted, someone probably made a mistake. And they do stink! It’s like a combination of vomit & dogshit. I don’t know what the fruits are used for (food? medicine?) but I’ve seen some older Asian folks collecting them by the bagful in the fall, below the huge old ones in front of the Sun paper building. They are beautiful trees.