How do you know a ginseng plant is old enough to dig?
Every fall, people walk into the West Virginia woods looking for one small plant with a valuable root. But the state has rules: dig too soon, or in the wrong place, and you are breaking the law. So how can you tell, just by looking, that a plant is old enough?
The plant is ginseng. The stateโs Division of Forestry calls it โA native plant of West Virginiaโ that โis prevalent in cool, moist forests.โ People dig it for its root: โThis perennial herb is highly prized for its large, fleshy rootsโฆโ It is not a new business. โGinseng has been harvested as a cash crop in West Virginia for at least 200 years.โ And it takes its time: โGinseng is slow growing with seeds that take two years to germinate.โ That is why the state sets a season. โWest Virginia Ginseng Season runs from September 1 through November 30 every year.โ The Division says it โclosely monitors the harvesting of this valuable resource to protect ginseng supplies for years to come.โ
Basis: West Virginia Division of Forestry, Ginseng Program page (About Ginseng; Digging Season). Quotations unchanged.
So how do you know a plant is old enough? The Division gives two clues about age. Count the prongs (the leaf stalks): โDig ginseng roots only when the plant has three or more prongs (with no fewer than 15 leaflets) indicating the plant is probably at least five years oldโฆโ And the root keeps a kind of diary. โThe age of a ginseng plant can be determined by looking at the base of the plant stem, where bud scars occur. A 5 year old ginseng root will have at least 4 scars; the first year the root does not produce a scar.โ Being old enough is not the only check. The berries are about ripeness, not age: โThe berries of the plant must be red in color indicating that they are mature.โ Then there is a rule that looks ahead: โSeeds from the plant must be planted on the site of the harvest.โ And not every woods is open. โDigging on private land without prior written consent is prohibited.โ โDigging on your own land is permitted during the digging season.โ
Basis: West Virginia Division of Forestry, Ginseng Program page (Rules for Digging; Frequently Asked Questions). Quotations unchanged.
The woodfarms quiz shows that West Virginia has the biggest share of farms with woods of any state. The ginseng rules say you may dig on your own land in season. Put those together and it is tempting to guess that some of those farm woodlots hide ginseng. But the farm census counts woods, not what grows under the trees, and the Division of Forestry page does not say how much ginseng comes from farms. So this is only a guess. A farm woodlot might hold ginseng, ramps, mushrooms, or nothing anyone digs at all โ the numbers here cannot tell which.
โป A hypothesis is an idea that isn't proven yet.
๐ Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.