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Life Cycle
A ginseng seedling has a small, short stem supporting three
tiny leaflets when it sprouts between late April and early
June. Within four to five weeks of sprouting, the herb is
about 3” tall and leaflets are fully developed. Now the
seedling looks similar to a wild strawberry plant. No
further growth occurs after midsummer. In autumn, the
foliage turns a rich yellow color and dies off, hastened by
frost.
In its second year, the plant can reach five or more inches
in height and produces two prongs branching from the central
stem, each prong being a single leaf composed of three to
five leaflets. The number of prongs will increase with age
and the plant may eventually reach a height exceeding two
feet. In cultivated shade gardens, ginseng produces three
prongs in its third growing season and often four prongs in
its fourth. However in the wild, plants are usually five to
nine years old before they add a third prong and begin to
product berries with seeds in any quantity. In later years,
the plants can have as many as five prongs radiating from
the top of the stem with each prong having five leaflets,
sometimes as many as eight.
From the center of the prongs, a delicate cluster of small
blossoms arises in early summer on plants that are at least
three years old. A ginseng plant is capable of
self-pollination but reproduces greater when sweat bees and
other insects cross pollinate the flower clusters. By July
or August as many as fifty berries follow the blossoms. The
berries are kidney shaped and turn a beautiful bright
crimson color as they ripen. Each ripe berry contains two
hard whitish seeds. Under normal conditions, the seeds do
not germinate and sprout until eighteen to twenty months
after they fall from the plant in August or September.
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