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Post by jeannine on Apr 10, 2007 1:18:19 GMT -5
Does anyone have some really good pictures of ginseng growing wild or cultivated? Or perhaps a good web site with lots of pics to help identifying it? After reading the posts on here I remembered my DH saying something to me 5 yrs ago when we moved here that I needed to check on ginseng, that is was said to be growing around this area. I've been looking at all the pictures I can find, but most aren't very good, close-up or helpful in general. The thing is I remember last fall seeing something out in my woods that had red berries when I was out there checking on the wild grapes, I thought Wow I didn't know that stuff got berries on it? Wonder what it is? I've looked at lots of pages of wild plants, but still haven't found exactly what it looks like or what the site is describing. Probably isn't ginseng, but it would be nice to know what it looks like, young and old plants, just in case I ever come across it.
Jeannine
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Post by tomc on Apr 10, 2007 5:29:16 GMT -5
I use my Peterson's. That said Audobond has a pretty big tree gallery, they might have the same for other plant groups--tried a search?
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Post by Alan on Apr 10, 2007 9:15:14 GMT -5
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Post by jeannine on Apr 11, 2007 0:21:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the help! I've done several searches and all the pics are of these big plants. I'll say one thing is for sure, I've got a ton of 'things' growing out there that I have no clue as to what they are. We've lived here on this property for almost 6 yrs now and it seems like every year I find several 'new plants' that I haven't seen out there in yrs past, found one today in fact!
Jeannine
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brook
gardener
Posts: 127
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Post by brook on Apr 11, 2007 8:14:53 GMT -5
Been biting my tongue over this one, but finally had to respond.
Frankly, I'd just as soon you didn't recognize wild sang. It, along with yellow root, has been seriously over-harvested---to the point where it's endangered, down here in Kentucky. And I imagine other places as well.
Indeed, I have very mixed feelings about wildcrafting in general, because of this. I'm not talking about things like dandelion and plantain, which take over your lawn. But any of the forest group exists in a fragile relationship to encroaching civilization, and it's too easy to destroy one.
OK, I'll get off the soapbox now.
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Post by Alan on Apr 11, 2007 9:37:30 GMT -5
I agree brook, which is why I very deeply encourage folks to buy seed and "woodsgrow" it or if they are going to hunt wild ginseng, buy seed and replant 5 times what you take. This is very important to me, as it should be to anyone from the "hills" where "sang" hunting is a right of passage. I do hunt wild ginseng in the fall, however it gets replanted 10 fold what was there originally, I have even been know to plant in places where ginseng should be growing but isn't just so that it will take root and make a comeback. The thing is wild ginseng and woodsgrown looks the same and essentially is the same and over time (3 years from seed to seed) will become "wild", more people need to invest in this if for no other reason then to repopulate.
-Alan
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brook
gardener
Posts: 127
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Post by brook on Apr 11, 2007 13:10:45 GMT -5
Absolutely.
Plus we're looking at 7 years to produce a usable root.
I recall, too, seeing the commercial ginsang farms in British Columbia. Mile after mile of shade-cloth covered rows. We didn't know what was being grown until reaching the gate to the farm, about in the middle, with, I'd guess, 3 miles on each side. One hell of an operation.
Another one that's in trouble, for the same reason, is the native echinacea in Tennessee. It's now against the law to even harvest a flower. But there are no herb police I'm aware of to enforce such rules.
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Post by Alan on Apr 11, 2007 13:57:08 GMT -5
DNR are really the only law enforcement involved in the policing of wildcrafted herbs and they are pretty lax about enforcement. One thing that is interesting is that cultivated ginseng used to be worth money untill china started doing the same thing, now your lucky to get $8 a pound on it whereas "woodsgrown" ginseng is impossible to tell apart from "wild" and goes for the same prices. Like I said re-seeding is very important and always leave more then you take.
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Post by tomc on May 21, 2007 14:08:29 GMT -5
I'm awaiting seed to germinate, and wouldn't mind a picture of just germinated ginseng seedlings. I hate to depend on the "if it pulls out easily its not a weed" system.
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Post by Alan on May 21, 2007 16:44:26 GMT -5
haha, give me a day or too and Kim and I will see if we can't get out in the woods and get you some pics of some baby ginsent and some big 'ol 4 prongers too.
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Post by kimikat on Jul 3, 2007 7:38:46 GMT -5
Damn...I'm behind on this one...
They aren't seedlings anymore, but I'll try to get some pic's of them tomorrow. Essecentially...They look like tiny one prong ginseng....
I'm not sure what I was doing when this thread was posted, but chances are the pic's never got taken because we were busy getting stuff in the ground. Not much hiking gets done when we're in the middle of planting season. 'Specially during a drought.
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on Jul 29, 2007 23:19:56 GMT -5
See my post of my pics. Newly sprouted plants look like the little three leaf one.
Patrick
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