Wild Root's Premium Price Drives Harvesting Frenzy for Endangered Plant in Virginia
It may be the only native plant in Virginia that residents have taken to protecting with surveillance cameras, motion detectors and shotguns. Those who have it don't boast about their harvest, referring to their crop only in hushed tones as "green gold."
The commodity?
It's not marijuana or cocaine, but the tiny ginseng plant.
Wholesale prices of the wild ginseng root, used in Southeast Asia for centuries to treat everything from stomachaches to impotence, doubled this year to as much as $500 a pound. The price jump has many property owners complaining of ginseng poachers, and it has agriculture officials worried that the wild plant -- already classified as an endangered species -- could be wiped out by overharvesting in some areas.
"The natural population is very threatened," said Andy Hankins, a Virginia Cooperative Extension Service specialist in alternative agriculture. "When the price hit $300 in 1993, many people hit the woods. This year, when it went to $500, they just went wild."
American ginseng , which has slightly different properties from Asian varieties, comes in two varieties: cultivated and wild. There's no shortage of the cultivated type, but it brings only $25 to $40 a pound and is not highly sought after by Asian buyers, who think it has less therapeutic value.
It's the wild variety that horticulturists are concerned about, because landowners and thieves, eager to make a quick buck while prices are high, are harvesting young plants that haven't had a chance to scatter their seeds. Ginseng plants take six years to fully mature.
In Virginia, the nation's fourth-largest producer, wild ginseng grows in north-facing areas along the Blue Ridge Mountains and as close to Washington as in Loudoun, Prince William and Fauquier counties.
State agriculture officials estimate that more than 25 percent of the plants are being yanked out of the ground before they reach seed-bearing age and that many others are taken after producingg only a small number of seeds.
"It's something we're very concerned about," said John Tate, who deals with endangered plant species for the Virginia Department of Agriculture.
Last year, 10,292 pounds of the wild root was harvested in Virginia. Maryland yielded 175 pounds of the wild root, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Federal law permits harvesting of ginseng from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31. But those hunting for the plant have found it increasingly difficult to locate.
"These days, you're going to have to look for a long time before you find any in the wild," said Robert L. Romang, president of the Ginseng Research Institute of America, based in Wausau, Wis. "The pressure is astronomical on the wild stuff."
Experts believe the price increase is the result of increased demand in Asia and a growing appetite for the herb in the United States. The ginseng root is commonly processed into tablets, teas, extract, creams and other products. Although some believe ginseng can stimulate brain cells and endocrine glands, as well as cure illnesses, most Western physicians have not endorsed such claims.
Agriculture officials have no way of telling just how much ginseng is left in Virginia. But they believe more poachers are scouring the hillsides this year in search of wild ginseng , as well as so-called wild-simulated ginseng -- plants that are grown from seeds scattered manually and that are just as valuable as true wild ginseng .
"If you were to try to plant it in the woods in southwestern Virginia, you could expect it to be stolen by the time it's four or five years old, if not sooner," Hankins said. "Even teenagers down there know what it looks like."
State officials do not track ginseng thefts, which are a misdemeanor, but they estimate that such offenses are on the rise. Hankins said he suspects that theft of the roots is vastly underreported because farmers fear divulging the fact that they're growing ginseng -- even to police officers and judges.
"They're just beefing up their own security," Hankins said. "We've got cameras, eye-beam security systems, people sleeping in their fields with guns. You name it."
And nobody wants to talk about it. Several ginseng growers approached for this article refused to speak to a reporter. Others did so grudgingly after eliciting a promise that the locations of their growing areas would not be revealed.
"I try not to draw too much attention to what I'm doing," said Doug V. Peregoy, 45, an engineer who lives in Orange County, Va., near Charlottesville, and has been growing wild-simulated ginseng for 20 years.
He estimates that he's got $10,000 worth of the root in the ground. It's a retirement fund, he said, although he plans to dig a few plants in the summer to pay some hospital bills.
Peregoy said that he's worried about thefts with the price jump but that he's not planning to install any fancy monitoring equipment because it would just draw attention. "I may as well set up an orange flag in the woods," he said.
The high prices also are luring new growers from the ranks of struggling cattle and grain farmers. Rappahannock County cattleman James F. Massie started 500 ginseng plants in 1993, and he is planning to scatter 500 seeds in the spring.
"Cattle prices are down, taxes are up, and we're looking for a way to make a little money here," Massie said.
Growers such as Massie and Peregoy say they know where to find young wild ginseng , but they won't pick it. "It's an endangered species for a good reason," Peregoy said.
"I've got rights to be on land that's populated with {young} wild ginseng , but I've never been there. Unfortunately, I'm the exception, not the rule."
Peterson Field Guides' "Wildflowers," U.S. Botanic Garden, The World Book Encyclopedia
- BY : Rajiv Chandrasekaran - Washington Post Staff Writer
- SOURCE : The Washington Post1995.12.11
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