The popularity of wild ginseng as an ingredient in herbal medicines has put this native plant of Michigan at risk.

Harvesting of wild ginseng species in Siberia, Korea and China for centuries has severely undermined populations there, turning the attention of the trade to the North American population. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), which ranges from Quebec to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Oklahoma, is listed as a threatened species under Michigan law.

Michigan's ginseng communities occur chiefly in the southern three tiers of counties in the Lower Peninsula, growing most often in woodlots and wooded coastal dunes. But these populations are typically small, "sometimes consisting of only a few individuals," according to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI). Ginseng is also found at scattered locations over the northern Lower Peninsula, and was noted in Gogebic County in the western Upper Peninsula.

Sometimes confused with similar plants such as black snakeroot and wild sarsaparilla, ginseng also bears a resemblance to young hickory seedlings. Its flowering and fruiting stages usually occur from June to October. Growing from an often-forked taproot, ginseng at maturity has a single whorl of three to five leaves with three to five leaflets. A central cluster of small greenish-white flowers produces bright crimson, berry-like fruits at maturity, bearing one to three seeds.

Because of the trade in ginseng, its export is regulated under an international convention. States have control over the management and certification for export of ginseng within their boundaries. Michigan has not granted a permit for the harvesting of wild ginseng in several years, although there are several ginseng growers legally operating under a 1994 law.

Michigan lacks up-to-date information on the occurrence of ginseng, and the MNFI recommends a "comprehensive state inventory to determine the status and extent of the state's ginseng population." Conservation of the ginseng will require protection of large, viable tracts of woodland habitat.

The MNFI abstract on ginseng is on the Internet: http://www.michigan dnr.com/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/abstracts/botany/panax_quinquefolius.pdf.