“100-year-old” Wild Ginseng Root

Larry Harding has grown American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) for over 45 years. Harding’s Ginseng Farm, located in Friendsville, Maryland, in the Appalachian Mountains, has over 70 acres of wild simulated ginseng (ginseng grown in an environment designed to simulate conditions of the wild environment). Harding’s ginseng originated from harvested wild roots and seeds the Harding family collected up to 50 years ago. When it comes to ginseng, Harding has just about seen it all, so in the fall of 2007 when Roger Welch brought him a wild ginseng root that weighed just under a pound (lb), Harding wasn’t surprised, but said it was quite unique. “Most ginseng roots are a fraction of an ounce,” said Harding (oral communication, November 6, 2007). “Normally there are 200-330 roots per dry [wild] lb.”

According to Robert L. Beyfuss, American ginseng specialist for Cornell University Cooperative Extension, properly dried ginseng roots (of all types) weigh about one third of their original weight.¹ Welch had just started drying the root when Harding saw it so it had already lost a little of its weight. They drying process normally takes 8 to 10 days. The process didn’t hurt its value much since in September wild ginseng was selling for $400-500 per dry lb.² Now in November 2007, according to Harding, it’s selling for over $800 per dry lb. “That’s how rare it’s become,” said Harding. “When I was a kid I used to hunt it, but now only a few hunt it and it’s hard to find. It’s like digging for gold.”

Welch has been hunting ginseng for 47 years. He retired 6 years ago from a job at a paper company and said the money in ginseng is fairly good and that ginseng hunting is a healthy sport (e-mail, November 9, 2007). Yet when he found what he calls a “12-pronger,” he didn’t know what he had: “It was raining and muddy. There were a couple of tops so I thought it was several roots all clumped together,” said Welch (oral communication, November 9, 2007). “I even stopped and showed it to a couple of my buddies—telling them it was one root—and I thought I was fooling them. Turns out I wasn’t!” According to Beyfuss, ginseng plants usually have from 2 to 4 palmately compound leaves which are often called prongs. Mature ginseng plants usually have 3 prongs, very vigorous plants may have 4 prongs, five prong plants are very rare, and a twelve prong plant is “phenomenal” (e-mail, November 9, 2007).

When Welch was able to remove the mud, he saw it was indeed one piece. He later returned to the same area in western Maryland to see if he could find another root that large but could not. He did, however, profit from the additional ginseng he found. Welch said the roots he usually finds are hardly over 30 years old, and the average root a ginseng hunter finds and keeps is between 5 and 10 years old since ginseng has to be at least 5-years-old to be legally harvested. Welch estimated that this root was anywhere from 50 to 100 years old.

The roots Harding sees are 5 to 30 years old and are seldom over 50. Harding estimated that Welch’s root, because of its size and age rings, was around 100 years old. However, according to Beyfuss, ginseng roots can be roughly determined by counting the numbers of abscission scars on the rhizome and not necessarily the age rings. He said this particular root was hard to gauge due to the fact that it had multiple tops, and it is easier to determine the age of a root with a single rhizome and one stem. He estimated that this root could be 100 years old, but was most likely closer to 50.

Harding was aware of only one case with roots over 100 years old. In 2005, the Yonhap news agency of Korea reported that a set of 6 ginseng roots, including specimens up to 110 years old, sold at an auction for $120,000 to two brothers who wanted to help treat their mother’s ailing knees.³ Harding added that, since a ginseng’s medicinal value increases with age, this root could be worth $1,000 or more to someone who wanted its medicinal properties, though one might also want it for sentimental reasons. However, Harding did not buy the coveted root himself. “It’s not worth over a thousand to me,” said Harding. “It doesn’t have sentimental value to me, but to someone else it could be worth a lot.”

It certainly has sentimental value to Welch, who traditionally gives his ginseng money to his wife as a Christmas gift. “I’ve given her about $5,000 this year—she’s pretty happy,” said Welch. This, however, didn’t include money for the 12-prong root. Even with offers from $1,200-$1,500, Welch said he isn’t selling. Instead he said he’d rather give it to a museum like the Smithsonian, or some other institution that would display it and keep it intact.

“The Smithsonian’s not too far from me and if I wanted to see my root, I’d be able to,” said Welch. “I took that out of the ground without breaking one limb. I’d like to put it somewhere it won’t be used.”

—Kelly E. Saxton