Genetic Diversity of Wild Ginseng

[Brad]

So, it is the one issue that seems to be opposite from other plants...the idea that we should not plant seed from certain areas or that we should not plant seed from commercial sources into the woods.  I’ve been doing some research, and found some interesting studies on the subject. 

I’ve also found some answers to issues that have come up time and again when we talk about ginseng.  First, we all thought that deer would move ginseng seed from one place to another by eating the berries.  No true.  A study showed that a seed that goes through a deer will not germinate.  Turkeys?  The studies suggest my opinion was correct.  Seeds eaten by turkeys where there is fine gravel or other grit available will be crushed in the turkeys' craws.

Before we go on about what else I’ve found, how about you all let me hear your opinions.  Most plants need genetic diversity to remain healthy to some extent.  However, one of the arguments against planting ginseng is that we will dilute the wild genes of the plants, forever changing them.

What do you all think?

[curdogs14]

I agree that the deer & turkeys do not move the seed.  I seldom see where a whole seed has passed through either one.  But I think coons and oppossums do & probably coyotes & foxes too.  Whenever I am hunting ginseng, I always check around any den trees that I see and often find it within 30 or 40 yards of those trees.

I once read a study where it was thought that ginseng in small isolated patches were prone to inbreeding depression.  They crosspollenated wild ginseng with cultivated and the outcrossed ginseng was more vigorous with better survival rates.  That being said the wild ginseng on an near my property has a short seed spike and rounded leaves.  Within fifteen miles of there, I know of several places where it grows and the seed spikes are long and the leaves are more pointed, more like what I've grown from cultivated seed an obvious difference.  I think the reason is seed planted from another source years ago both places have some very old, healthy plants.   People have been buying seed and planting it for over 100 years and I see no problem with it.  This is an interesting topic for me.  Thanks.

[Brad]

I'm not done with my research yet, and I'll list references when I get done.

But, one study I have suggests deer are bigger preditors of ginseng than harvestors (legal and illegal).

I also saw that study (by McGraw I think) which suggests there is likely inbreeding depression and of course hybrid vigor when outcrossed.  But, there seems to be a specific genetic marker unique to wild plants.  Or at least to plants they think are wild.  Most of the 'wild' patches in Ohio trace to a Wisconsin strain from what i understand and I think I read the same thing about Pennsylvania.

[Lenno]

I agree that people have been planting cultivated seeds for a long time, and I believe it does more good than harm, if there is any harm at all. Remember the cultivated plants first came from wild stock. I don't see what difference it makes what the genetics are of a certain ginseng patch in the wild, as long as there are healthy populations. With this way of thinking, as long as we have cultivated ginseng farms then the threat of wild ginseng going extinct is not a worry. At any time it could be planted to bring back the wild populations.

[Brad]

Lenno,

I think that is an entirely pragmatic and reasonable position to hold.  After all, why does that one genetic marker really matter if we are not interested in preserving ginseng in the first place.  If that is our goal, planting seed and re-establishing wild populations (which anyone with a wild sim patch can see happening after about 6 years), then I fail to see the the greater good created by depressing the planting of seeds so as not to change the 'wild' genetic marker.  As I noted before, why not keep these strains pure for research purposes in our nation's parks where harvesting is no longer permitted?

Remember too, if the issue is to allow nature to remain pure, we must realize that in nature, things change and are never ever protected.  Just watch one of the late night/early morning documentary shows on what adult lions do to cubs when they move into the pride.  In nature, ginseng will-out cross if the opportunity exists.  This is a natural way, but the 'selfing' as it has come to be called, is an ability which ginseng and some other plants have to enable them to survive in very small, isolated populations.  If we consider the potential (and I"ll speak more on this when I can run down the source...I can't remember right now who it was) that the wild ginseng populations we now have are the remnants of a once huge and expansive single population, all of the various genetic markers were present in that large population.  Therefore, how can reintroducing those genetics back into the isolated populations be an artificial or a bad thing?