TOPIC: I think I found Gensing and Yellow Root growing wild in my woods.

Hi Everyone, I just found this great site and joined. A few days ago I was walking in my woods with a man who was going to take out fallen trees on my property. As we were walking through the forest he started pointing out all the Gensing and Yellow Root, telling me they were worth money. It all looked like weeds to me and I didn't believe he really knew what he was talking about. After looking at the photos posted I see it does look similar to what he pointed out. I noticed a berry starting to bud on one of the plants. I have 10 acers and 7 of them are all forest going up a hillside. There are alot of hardwoods and it is mostly shaded. Tomorrow I am going to take some pics of the plants and maybe you guys can confirm for me if I have Gensing or just poison Ivy! lol

tnginseng - welcome to the forum.

I am a long time ginseng hunter but also new to the forum here.

Most of the folks who know timber also know ginseng, yellowroot, etc - so I expect your guy knew what he was talking about.

If the TN in tnginseng is for Tennessee (like it is in my TNhunter) then I thought I would send you a few images from my backyard this morning.

Late last fall (when the ginseng was about to die out) I transplanted a few small roots up to a location just off my back yard in the woods. Now I can walk out about 100 ft from my back door and view my own little start of a ginseng patch.

The roots that I brought to this patch last fall were from small 2 prong plants and I only trans planted about 20 roots but a few of them came up 3 prong-ers this spring.

Below is a pic of one of the nicer 3-prong plants.

This will give you a good idea of what Tennessee Wild Ginseng looks like on June 22, 2010.

Here is a side-view of that same plant.

Notice the little green ginseng berries starting to develop on a small stem just above where the 3 leaf prongs split apart from the main stem. A week or three ago they were small white flowers.

Now here is a pic of poison oak and some virginia creeper growing just a few feet away from that ginseng plant.

PS - the 3 leaf stuff is poison oak - better stay away from that - the 5 leaf stuff is virginia creeper - completely harmless.

The 5 leaf pattern on the virginia creeper looks a bit like the ginseng leaf pattern. From a distance it can make a ginseng hunter take a double look to determine it's not ginseng.

And below is a pic I found online of cohosh growing in the Smokey Mtn area of TN.

One more picture for this morning...

Maidenhair fern, some call Anglehair fern

Here in Tennessee (at least in the middle Tennessee area) where I hunt Ginseng - when you find cohosh - very good chance (60-70%) of finding ginseng in the same area. When you find Maidenhair fern also very good chance (60-70%)that ginseng is growing nearby.

When you find both cohosh and maidenhair fern growing in the same area - almost always (90% +) chance of finding ginseng growing nearby.

Best of Luck !

TNhunter

Nice pics TN! I can't add much to that, except a pic. It just seems as though there is a cool micro climate & deep black loam soil in those areas where seng & maidenhair grow, same down there?

Maya,

Yes - same down here on those locations where you find seng, maidenhari fern, cohosh and even yellowroot.

Here in the part of (Middle TN) where I do most of my seng hunting, our elevation ranges from 600-1000 ft above sea level.

If you start out at the head of a hollow (usually up in the 900-1000 ft level) and go down the hollow it usually just looks sort of dry and not the right kind of plants growing in the area. We may see muskidime vines, poison oak, sasafras, etc but not the good plants we are looking for.

On down the hollow in the 700-800 ft elevation range - we will start to see rock outcrops and the creek/stream will be slick rock bottom type. It gets cooler and greener - starting to look right with all of those \"pointer\" type plants showing up.

Over the years I have noticed that cohosh is a very good sign that conditions are getting right, same for maidenhir fern but at times you do find either one of those in areas but no ginseng.

I have seen hollows just full of cohosh but not one single ginseng plant.

But now when you do find cohosh and maidenhair fern in the same location - WOW - you better be looking close for ginseng - It is almost always there nearby.

After I found this site and read a few mention a book by Scott Person on Growing Ginseng I looked it up on Amazon and purchased it.

I just got it in yesterday but have read thru quite a bit of it already.

He mentions that Ginseng likes somewhat acid soil (in the 5.0 ph range) that is high in calcium.

I expect there is probably something like that in common for those plants that we often find growing where ginseng is nearby.

TNhunter