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Chinese ginseng

Panax ginseng

Also called Korean ginseng, Asian Ginseng, Asiatic Ginseng, Manchurian Ginseng, Oriental Ginseng, Ginseng

Chinese ginseng
Photo: FloraFarm GmbH / Katharina Lohrie, CC BY 3.0

Panax ginseng is a slow-growing herbaceous perennial from mountain forests of East Asia, grown mainly for its root. It is cultivated for a multi-year crop, harvested when plants are about five or six years old.

Family
Araliaceae (Ivy family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Shade, Part shade
Water
Keep soil evenly moist but never waterlogged.
Soil
Humus-rich, well-drained, slightly acidic forest-type soil.
Temperature
10–25 °C; hardy to cold winters, needs winter dormancy.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Russian Far East to Korea
Climate
temperate

About

Panax ginseng, ginseng, also known as Asian ginseng, Chinese ginseng or Korean ginseng, is a species of plant whose root is the original source of ginseng. It is a perennial plant that grows in the mountains of East Asia. It is mainly cultivated in China, Korea, Russia, and Japan.

P. ginseng is an herbaceous perennial plant, 30–60 cm tall, with palmately compound leaves, serrated leaflets, a terminal umbel of 30–50 flowers, red round fruits, and kidney-shaped seeds.

How to grow it

Panax ginseng is one of the most commonly cultivated ginseng species, along with P. notoginseng (found naturally in China) and P. quinquefolius.

Safety

Use of Panax ginseng during pregnancy and breastfeeding is potentially unsafe. It may have adverse effects in people with immune disorders, bleeding conditions, cardiovascular diseases or cancer. It should not be used by children.

Common side effects include headache, an increase in blood pressure, diarrhea, insomnia, skin rash, and vaginal bleeding.

Where it grows

Panax ginseng is native to mountainous regions of the Russian Far East, Northeast China, and the Korean Peninsula. It grows in forested areas of Canada and the United States. It is a protected plant in Russia and China, and most commercial ginseng is now sourced from plants cultivated in China, Korea and Russia. It is also cultivated in some areas of Japan and in Wisconsin. The plant is a slow-growing perennial, and the roots are usually harvested when the plants are five or six years old.

Other Panax plants

Japanese Ginseng · South China Ginseng · Ginseng · American ginseng · Dwarf ginseng · Vietnamese Ginseng · Ginseng

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Panax ginseng by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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