TOPIC: Nice Patch of Ginseng

Here's a nice patch of ginseng I found.

Woops! I mean \"Fools Ginseng\", or better known as \"Wild Sarsaparilla\".

From a distance if looks like real ginseng!

These plants are about 24-28\" tall. I plan on planting seeds here this fall.

Clsssicfur,
You got me there for a minute. I started to say holy cow. I have a spot of wild sang that looks about this thick. This is the spot that has over 50 nice 4 prongs and 30 large 4 prongs. I will post a pic of them later on this fall when the berries are on. Maybe I will make a short video of them.
Latt

Latt,

Do you have wild Sarsaparilla growing in your area? I have found them to be good companion plants for my ginseng beds.

Look forward to seeing your big plants. The four prongs must be pretty old plants.

Thanks

classicfur

Yes there is Sarsaparilla growing in the area. I agree, I find it often around wild ginseng too.
Latt

While that plant has the right general size and shape the leaf pattern is not hardly right - which made it fairly easy for me to tell (even from the first pic) that it was not ginseng.

Now what fools me best is a young hickory tree sprout (when they are say 1' to 1.5' tall) they often take on a 3 prong shape and the leaf pattern is very similar to ginseng with 5 leaves coming out of a cluster 3 large leaves pointing out and 2 smaller leaves pointing back to the middle. They even yellow up in the fall about the same time that segn start yellowing up.

I have done a double take on many of them and even crossed a hollow to look at a nice one I spotted on the other side, only to realize once I got close enough it was a hickory sapling instead.

Another thing that will fool you quite often is virginia creeper, when it is growing on the ground. Sometimes the leaf clusters will bunch together in a 3 or 4 prong shape and fool you good.

TNhunter

TN and others,
I agree, I have done the same thing.
I often find ginseng in large areas covered with virginia creeper. Sometimes I think the virginia creeper, Sarsaparilla and hickory tree sprouts help hide the sang. Old timers can spot the sang but these plants help hide the sang from some that may not have been hunting as long as some.

You old timers know what I mean as well as others that have hunted for years. When you are in the zone the sang almost jumps out at you. You can quickly scan an area and sometimes they seem to just pop out.

Have you ever visually scanned an area as you are walking somewhat quickly and you look away from a spot, then all of a sudden your brain must click in and you look back quickly at a specific spot and there is the sang. It's almost like you do not have to specifically think about it anymore. Almost like the brain has the picture of the plant and you are on automatic or cruise control.

Sometimes you do not even see the leaves as they are masked or blocked from sight by other woodland plants but you catch the space or gap that ginseng has as the bottom of the 5 leaves where the leaf stems all connect but leaves do not touch. And your cruise control is on and your brain says sang!

That's in the zone.
Latt

Know what you mean about that in the zone thing Latt.

I also have the ability to sense where it is going to be based on what the hillside, companion plants, and other location qualities look like. When me and my seng hunting buddy go hunting, as we first head down a hollow looking for seng about 10 out of 12 times I will find the first bunch.

That is something that comes with experience too.

I know exactly what you mean about scanning a area and boom one jumps out at you, or even after you scan past that area your brain clicks and you can swing right back to the spot where that 3 prong is hidden well mixed in with creeper and other look alikes.

It is definately a pattern recognization thing.

I really enjoy going with someone new, teaching them how. I can sure give them heck the first several trips we go on - I will have them thinking that I can smell it. As you are approaching a spot that just looks very sengy - I alway say I think I smell some over there, and about 9 times out of 10 when you get there sure enough you find a few.

It does not take much of that to have a newbie thinking you can actually smell it. You can re-inforce that some by spotting one from quite a distance and telling the newbie that you think you smell one over there and then let him go over there and look around until he finally stumbles on it.

Works ever time.

I usually let them in on the joke a few weeks later.

All in fun !

PS - do you ever have the \"image flash backs\" after you get home and take care of your seng and shower and all - almost every time for several hours after a hunt I will have what I call \"image flash backs\" where when I blink my eyes or turn my head or look up at the cieling I see ginseng leaf patterns.

It's odd but happens to me almost every time.

I think I am just looking so intently for that leaf pattern that it sort of gets burnt into my brain a bit, then repeats after I am back home. It usually goes away over night.


TNhunter

TN,
Yes, that happens to me all the time. When I close my eyes I still see it after the hunt. Or if I look at the wall or the ceiling I can still see it just like you described. That is too funny! My wife used to go with me and we would be laying there and she would say \"All I can see is ginseng when I close my eyes\". I used to laugh and told her it was OK cause I did it too.
I like your \"Smell the Ginseng\" trick. That is too funny. I'll have to give it a try too sometime.
Thanks,
Latt

The one thing interesting about Sarsaparilla is that it is in the same family of plants as ginseng. Aralia nudicaulis
Ginseng family (Araliaceae)

I never knew that Ginseng and Sarsaparilla were related to each other.

From below link:\"Wild Sarsaparilla is related to the better known Panax quinquefolius (American Ginseng).\"

www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/pl...ild_sarsaparilla.htm

Here's another site: Plants mistaken for ginseng.

www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/wildplant/ginseng_lookalikes.aspx

classicfur