[MPWG] MPWG V1#1 -- ginseng

[Jeanine Davis]

What a great review article! Thanks for sharing, Jim.  Jeanine

 

Jeanine M. Davis, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor and Extension Specialist 
Dept. of Horticultural Science, NC State University 
Email: Jeanine_Davis at ncsu.edu 
Websites:  http://ncherb.org <http://ncherb.org/>
http://ncspecialtycrops.org <http://ncspecialtycrops.org/>
http://ncorganic.org <http://ncorganic.org/>  
Blog:  http://ncalternativecropsandorganics.blogspot.com
<http://ncalternativecropsandorganics.blogspot.com/>  
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JeanineNCSU 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeanine-Davis/1442912228
<http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeanine-Davis/1442912228>  
Address: Mtn. Hort. Crops Research & Extension Center 
455 Research Drive, Mills River, NC 28759 
Phone:  828-684-3562   FAX:  828-684-8715 

 

From: MPWG [mailto:mpwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of
James McGraw
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 9:04 AM
To: Michael Schenk
Cc: mpwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [MPWG] MPWG V1#1 -- ginseng

 

N

ice summary, Michael!  And interesting discussion all around.

 

In case anyone hasn't seen our review paper, it is attached.  Feel free to
disperse far and wide...

 

Best wishes, Jim McGraw

 

On Sat, Sep 7, 2013 at 9:19 PM, Michael Schenk <schenkmj at earthlink.net>
wrote:

While we might argue about details and dates of extinction (hey, what do you
expect from tv?), wild ginseng is definitely heavily threatened, by a
synergy of factors.

"Poaching". There are gray areas here, where traditional harvesting might
cross a paper border, but there are clear signs that the nature of ginseng
harvesting has changed. Here's one anecdote: a friend who grew up digging
sang found a good bed. He harvested from that bed for years, but made the
mistake of disclosing it to an in-law with drug issues. The entire bed
disappeared. Combine this anecdote with the ongoing recession and the spread
of meth and painkiller addiction... So traditional diggers are also
stewards, but there's another, newer ethos going on here.

Habitat loss. Population's increasing, and an awful lot of people of means
want a lawn in the country. Mountaintop removal coal mining buries
Appalachian coves in waste; prime ginseng habitat is used as a landfill.
Interstate highways just have to be built. I'm sure MPWGers can fill in many
other habitat issues.

Invasive species. I know we've argued this over in the past, but I've seen
with my own eyes how stiltgrass and tearthumb can completely dominate forest
edge areas, as well as interior areas. With habitat fragmentation, there's
lots more edge, too.

Climate change. Another hot button, but it's happening. Plants are
especially vulnerable to rapidly changing ecosystems, especially
slow-growing plants with modest seed dispersal. Ginseng likes it cool. I've
seen it grow best near the foot of a ridge, flushed with rain runoff. As the
coves and hollows warm, the cooler zone moves higher towards the peak, plus
it gets drier. Eventually, we run out of mountain. Animals and birds can
migrate to the next ridge over, but how many of those will be passing
ginseng seed? 

Deer. Many populations are out of whack. "Browse lines" are familiar to many
or most of us, where there's nothing but thick woody stems below reaching
height for a hungry deer. Not only forest-floor plants, but future
generations of trees, are disappearing there.

These factors make it critical to have protected areas for wild ginseng.
Cultivated ginseng isn't the same. Commercial seed sources can be chemically
dependent on pesticides after generations of cultivation. I grow wild
simulated, but this is indeed simulated, not a distinctive population
adapted to a locale over thousands of years (even if wild simulated does
sell as "wild"). Ginseng has been shown to develop many isolated,
genetically distinct populations. Each time we lose a bed, we could be
losing the equivalent of an entire subspecies. 

These problems are beyond the scope of any single or easy solution, but we
definitely need to protect as many wild populations as we can. Even from a
commercial viewpoint, this makes sense, to maintain genetic diversity as
insurance against blight and inbreeding. Traditional diggers who replant
probably do more than anyone in this regard. The government is limited in
what steps it can take, but it does have statutory responsibility in
National Parks, as well as responsibility for the trade of endangered
species per CITES. I've also heard horror stories from private
landowner/growers who have had years of work dug up in a day, with very
limited legal recourse. Maybe we could use more rights for small growers.

What do folks think about instituting isolated, single-population ginseng
growing refuges, clearly identified as to source and lineage? (similar to
the seed bank Marla proposes on change.org) This would be an active step
beyond the necessary but somewhat passive protection of wild populations. I
tend to buy seed from a single grower, but I have mixed some seed from
another source.

Bob, for some reason I didn't see your letter in your post, the attachment
may not have survived the digest format.

Mike Schenk

PS: Let's not point fingers about the video, after all this is "television
journalism" - low info content, short attention span, high drama. 'Nuff said
<grin>.

>
>Today's Topics:
>
> 1. ginseng in the news (Susan Leopold)
> 2. Re: ginseng in the news (Colin Donohue)
> 3. Re: ginseng in the news (Michael McGuffin)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2013 17:15:39 -0400
>From: Susan Leopold 
>To: mpwg 
>Subject: [MPWG] ginseng in the news
>Message-ID:
> <5DE76C5A-A955-4B6D-BCC9-A93B83BEB7CB at unitedplantsavers.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>United Plant Savers has started a change.org letter to bring awareness to
our members and the public and to show various agencies that the public
cares and supports ginseng conservation efforts....
>
>Below is a link to the CBS story and to our change.org letter, also you can
go to the UpS website www.unitedplantsavers.org for links to several recent
news articles and ginseng recently published research.
>
>Please join this campaign: http://chn.ge/15Eon5H
>
>
>
>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57601454/ginseng-poaching-threatens-
survival-of-plant-species/
>
>Susan Leopold, PhD
>Executive Director, UpS
>703-667-0208
>susan at unitedplantsavers.org
>

 



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-- 

James B. McGraw

Eberly Professor of Biology

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