BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Ginseng. If you have ever looked for this elusive plant deep in the mountain hollows, your heart beats a little faster and your eyes begin to glaze at just the mention of the word.

Ginseng, known as the “man plant” around the world because some roots are shaped like the head, body, and legs of a man, has been hunted and dug in the Appalachian Mountains since Daniel Boone.

The plant itself goes back much further than this, however, as the Chinese mention it in their folklore.

The story goes that a beautiful maiden in China was barren and could not have a male child. She prayed and prayed and God was pleased with her. Because of her faith, God gave her a special plant.

She was to take this plant, eat it and drink the tea from the root, and she would bear a male child. She did as God told her, and she had a male child.

The story goes that God was so pleased with her that he gave the plant to all of man and they too were supposed to eat it and drink a tea from it and they would be fertile.

God called the plant ginseng or “man-plant” because it allowed mankind to reproduce.

To this day, markets in Asia and especially China sell these roots and they are supposed to cure all manner of ailments, from stomach problems, heartburn, nervous disorders and pain from menstruation.

They especially believe that it is a potent aphrodisiac and promotes sexual vitality in men.

When the first hunters and settlers came across the mountains to western North Carolina and East Tennessee, they bought ginseng from the Indians and dug the roots because the plant was so abundant and valuable.

It became a cash crop to them and many families counted on the plant to help them buy goods that they could not grow or make themselves. For others, it was a way to try to get wealthy.

There is one story about Daniel Boone that tells that he traded and dug the roots of the plant until he had 6000 pounds of it. He was taking it to market by river when a storm caught him and swamped the boat.

The boat sunk taking the ginseng with it to the bottom of the river. Boone lost that day the modern-day equivalent of over four million dollars.

As the years passed, mountain people kept digging the plant and selling it for what they could get from it. Most families passed the tradition of digging the plant to their children, and I am proud to say I was taught to dig this plant as a child.

Some of my fondest memories are hunting the plant with my mother and father. In the late fall, we would take it to market and use the cash from it to help buy Christmas gifts or other things around the house.

As I grew older, I only hunted with my father. We would search for the plant all day, and during lunch, we would split leftovers from the night before or a can of pork and beans.

Some days we would find very little. On other days we would find two or three pounds. What counted to me were the memories I was making with my father.

Hunting for the plant became part of who I am, and every year I look forward to the fall and the opening of ginseng season.  I hope the Good Lord allows me the health and strength to look for it until the day I die, and if He does, I know I will die a happy man.

Today there are strict regulations on the plant and strict seasons for harvesting it. We will discuss these and more about the “man plant” in the next East Tennessee Outdoors.