TOPIC: Ginseng berry color

Hello, I'am new to your forum and trying to learn more about ginseng. While I was Bear hunting in the U.P. I found plants that the stem and leafs look like ginseng but the berrys that were left on were blue in color, is this a later stage of the berry? The leafs have turned yellow. Thank for any help.

doesn't sound like ginseng. I've seen thousands of ginseng plants with berries, but never a blue one. Might be blue cohosh. it has blue berries and a stem configuration like sang, but the leaves are quite different. I dont know what time of year you were bear hunting, but the berries on sang dont usually turn red until sept. or oct. The berries on blue cohosh turn blue earlier than this.

Thanks for the info Sprong, I wasn't sure if the berrys changed color on ginseng. I will check the leafs closer, it was the first week of October when I found the plants. The root system look similar also. Where can I find more info on Cohosh, Thanks again.

Upjack, The berries do change color on sang. They change from green to red in late summer to early fall. They typically fall off within a few weeks of turning red (quicker in drier weather). I don't know where to find info on blue cohosh other than doing a web search.

It sounds like you may have found some wild Sarsaparilla. Known as sasparilla, it is also known as fools sang and the berries on it do turn blue in the fall. The difference in the two plants is that seng gets it's berries on a stem from right in the middle of the leaf stems while WS has berries form on another stem from the bottom of the plant.