Nebraskaland

48 Nebraskaland • April 2020 IN THE FIELD By Gerry Steinauer THREATENED AND ENDANGERED: THE GINSENG Ginseng is a fabled plant of folk medicine. For centuries, the root, consumed raw, pickled, dried or powdered, has had purported curative powers. In recent decades, poaching and over-harvesting of the plant for medicinal use has led to population declines over much of its range – the moist deciduous forests of the eastern United States and Canada. A perennial, ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has a thick taproot from which rises a solitary stem reaching up to a foot in height. The few compound leaves are long-petioled and similar in appearance to those of the abundant woodbine, which ginseng often grows with and is mistaken for. The small white to greenish fl owers, arranged in a terminal cluster , bloom from late May into June and the distinctive bright red, fl eshy berries ripen in July and August. In Nebraska, ginseng grows in rich, Missouri River bluff woodlands and is known from only fi ve locations, all of which are on conservation lands. These populations range in size from just a few to about 50 plants. Here, at the dry western edge of the species range, ginseng has likely never been overly abundant, but the fact that the Pawnee once used the plant in a love charm, along with the roots and fl owers of other plants, indicates it was once likely more abundant than it is today. Since Euroamerican settlement, habitat destruction has led to population declines, and ginseng is now a state threatened species. Ginseng is now wild-harvested and even farmed under wooded canopies in many eastern states. The dried root is exported in great quantities, most going to China, where Asian ginseng (P. ginseng) has been a medicinal plant for millennia. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has approved regulated harvest of ginseng in 19 states, but not Nebraska where harvest or possession of the plant is illegal. It is so rare in our state that poaching is likely not profi table nor an issue. Though touted for enhancing mental health, a recent Oregon State study found that ginseng extracts provided no psychological benefi ts to humans. Science has also not confi rmed many of the plant's other purported medicinal values. Studies do suggest that the plant's ginsenoside compounds have antioxidant properties, inhibit the growth of certain types of cancer cells and lower blood sugar in Type II diabetics among other benefi ts. Many medical professionals, however, warn that the quality and reliability of many ginseng supplements are questionable, and some have been found to contain dangerous amounts of heavy metals. One of Nebraska's ginseng populations grows at Ponca State Park. Here, biologists, funded through the Nebraska Environmental Trust, are controlling invasive plants and using prescribed fi re and tree thinning to enhance the oak woodlands. Such management also promotes native plants including ginseng. Hopefully, conservation management at the park and other sites will allow this rare medicinal plant to survive in our state.

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