Making Sure That the Plants Identified Are Ginseng By Digging Up a Plant, Tasting, and Examining the Root

September 1 is the beginning of ginseng season on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. Towards the end of the summer the plant has produced seeds which fall of the stem, and some, two years latter become new ginseng plants. Wild American Ginseng is a threatened species, and is protected by the United Nations CITES treaty. Because of…