TOPIC: Identifying Ginseng

Hello all, I'm a newbie here and need a little help with identifying ginseng.

Some areas I spot seng it's very easy to identify. I have what appears to be seng only the leaf structure and pattern is a little different. The roots resemble seng. I have literally thousands of these with in a stones throw from my house.

I guess my question is: Are they're different varieties of ginseng?

See attached pics.

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If only so I would be rich. lol

This is cut and pasted below from another source and explains what you have my friend.

\"Wild sarsaparilla; also known as American Sarsaparilla, Bamboo Brier, Shot Bush, Spikenard, Spreading Spikenard, Wild Liquorice; perennial.

Family: Ginseng (Araliaceae)

Flower: White in rounded clusters of greenish-white on top of leafless stem; rounded clusters are 3-5 cm wide; flowers have tiny petals; June. See next photo.

Leaves: Single, long-stalked; 20-40 cm tall; rising above the flowers; 3 branching parts each with 3-5 ovate leaflets; red-brown to red-green colour.

Fruit: purplish-black berries in clusters. See following photographs.

Height: 20 - 40 cm.

Habitat: Moist deciduous or mixed forest. The plant prefers light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils. It can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral, and basic soils. It can grow in full shade and semi-shade and it requires moist soil.

Interest: This is the root-beer plant. The root is used as a flavouring and as a substitute for sarsaparilla. The root was used to make 'root beer' and can be made into a tea. It is reported that the roots were also used by the First Nation peoples when they were hunting since it is very sustaining.\"

That was one of my suspicions. Thanks so much for the info.
I'll keep searching. We do have a bunch of pockets of seng growing near by.

That's wild sarsaparilla, also known as dwarf spikenard (aralia nudicaulis). If you dig some Sassafras root too you'll be halfway to making some good rootbeer. On a side note wild sarsaparilla lives in a similar habitat to Ginseng.