Panax quinquefolius

The name is spelled 'quinquefolium' in many botanical and other works, but the correct spelling under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is 'quinquefolius'.

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) occurs in eastern North America, in the eastern and central United States, and southeastern Canada. It occurs from Maine west through southern Ontario to Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, south to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Oklahoma. It is most characteristic of the Appalachian and Ozark regions. It is widely distributed, with at least 4,000 occurrences rangewide, primarily in the Appalachians and the Ozarks, but typically with very few plants per occurrence. It is considered uncommon in the Piedmont and Southern Appalachians, and rare in the southeastern Coastal Plain. It occurs at generally low densities over a very broad range, with a modern total population of many millions if not over 100 million individual plants. However, population sizes of this plant have decreased considerably since European settlement. More recently, an overall decline of 20-30 percent was found in monitored populations from 2004 to 2014, this represents a decline of 2-3 percent per year. Threats include over harvesting (by digging) the roots, deer browse, competition from invasive non-native plant species, loss of habitat, timber harvest (especially clearcutting), drought and other factors. American Ginseng occurs in many protected areas throughout its range but is often subject to poaching (illegal digging, theft) from land within protected conservation areas. Since 2000, American Ginseng has been included on the USDA Forest Service Regional Sensitive Species List for 10 of the 12 National Forests where it occurs, due to population viability concerns. Harvest is prohibited except under special conditions authorized by the USDA Forest Service.

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) occurs in eastern North America, in the eastern and central United States, and southeastern Canada. It occurs from Maine west through southern Ontario to Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, south to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Oklahoma.The Appalachian region is considered the central part or core of its range. Range extent was estimated to be about 3,000,000 square kilometers, using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data collected between 1994 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, SERNEC 2025, Weakley and Southeastern Flora Team 2024).

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is widely distributed, with several thousand occurrences, primarily in the Appalachians and the Ozarks, but typically with very few plants per occurrence. It is considered common in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, southern Ohio, southern Indiana and southern Illinois, uncommon in the Piedmont and Southern Appalachians from Maryland to Alabama and Tennessee, and rare in the southeastern Coastal Plain (Weakley and Southeastern Flora Team 2024). By applying a 1 km separation distance to herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1994 and 2025, it is estimated that there are at least 4,000 occurrences rangewide, however these data are likely incomplete (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, McGraw 2023, NatureServe 2025, SERNEC 2025).

Panax quinquefolius (American Ginseng) is used for medicinal purposes globally but most commonly in Asia, where wild harvested plants command a substantial price premium over cultivated plants (USFWS 2022, White 2000). Threats include over harvesting (by digging) the roots, deer browse, competition from invasive non-native plant species, loss of habitat, timber harvest (especially clearcutting), drought and other factors (USFWS 2022, McGraw 2023). Logging of mesic hardwood forests (especially clearcutting) can be a threat since American Ginseng requires rich soil in a moist, generally shaded setting. American Ginseng is physiologically adapted to low light levels and can experience early leaf senescence or depressed growth with moderate high light levels (USFWS 2005) which can be an issue with increased forest fragmentation. But it is likely that American Ginseng can thrive in canopy gaps, which are more common in older or old growth forests (Chandler and McGraw 2017).

Prices for American Ginseng fluctuate but are higher than for any other commonly wild collected native North American medicinal plant. American Ginseng has two distinct markets, wild-harvested is the most expensive, while cultivated sells for lower prices (it is believed to be less effective in traditional Asian medicine), but some wild-simulated plants (lightly tended plants grown in natural settings) can appear similar to wild harvested, are hard to distinguish and to some extent are mixed in among those sold as the more expensive wild harvested plants. The United Plant Savers (2025) website notes that there may be a slow decline in the pressure from international markets, as farmers in China are cultivating American ginseng. It is unknown how much this has reduced wild harvest of the species.

There is substantial quantitative evidence that significant American Ginseng poaching has occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where harvest has been prohibited for a long time. It is the largest protected area within the geographic range of American Ginseng in the United States (Rock et al. 1999). For example, 10,151 roots were seized from illegal collectors between 1991 and 2000. According to law enforcement staff in the National Park, this figure accounts for 1-3% of total poaching. Field surveys showed that most American Ginseng plants were located in habitats which were somewhat less suitable for the plant, suggesting that poaching has caused a reduction of plants in the targeted, most suitable habitat areas for American Ginseng (Rock et al. 1999). The collecting pressure on wild American Ginseng may be much higher in the Appalachians than in the Ozarks, where collecting amounts vary greatly by county (independent of the abundance of the species) and American Ginseng on public trails in parks has been known to persist undisturbed for years.

A study by McGraw and Furedi (2005) reports that at least in a portion of West Virginia deer browse is impacting populations, this has been noted elsewhere but American Ginseng probably is not a preferred browse plant. Deer were found to be seed predators not dispersers, since no intact seeds were found in deer fecal pellets (McGraw 2023, USFWS 2005). Populations of American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) are locally adapted to mean maximum temperatures and do best with 28 inches of rainfall during the growing season and decline in drought conditions, when growing season rainfall is 16 inches or less. It is threatened by drought and increasing summer temperatures which may be associated with climate change (Souther and McGraw 2014, McGraw 2023).

In a study by Cruse-Sanders and Hamrick (2004), populations with a greater proportion of older plants and larger stage-class of individuals in protected populations had greater genetic diversity than within harvested populations. Removing the largest plants from a population may be subjecting the population to the Allee effect (Hackney and McGraw 2001). Also, "research suggests that local American Ginseng populations are highly adapted to local conditions and that artificial seeding with non-local seed may lead to local loss of fitness which could lead to the erosion of the gene pool" (Grubbs and Case 2004). Native populations are at risk of contamination from planted/cultivated seeds being brought in from elsewhere to augment existing natural populations (USFWS 2005).