American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) Such a cool plant rooted (no pun intended) in a rich tradition here in the Ozarks. My great grandad and uncles used to dig a lot of this plant in the fall. My uncles used to travel from Missouri to Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee just to hunt and harvest ginseng. Believe it or not though, they did a pretty good job of doing it conservatively. Admittedly though, I think their motives where more about personal future economics than conservation of the plant, for the most part. I can still find most of the patches that my uncles showed me years ago. Some places have been lost to land development ( i refuse to call it land improvement) but most are still intact and doing well. My fear is that even the most conservative harvest of this plant may still not be sustainable in the long run. Although I believe the much greater danger is habitat loss and not conservative harvest. Anymore though I get much more satisfaction out of finding and seeing it growing wild than I do out of seeing it dried and on the buyers scales.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 12:02:48 +0000
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