That's a lot of pockmarks. All this is fueling a demand already felt worldwide. Goldenseal, a relative of the buttercup, is, they say, second only to ginseng in commercial importance in the North American medicinal plant trade and is imperiled in 17 states. Goldenseal and American ginseng have become so hot that they number alongside rare reptiles and birds in being tightly regulated in international trade. Ohio's Ginseng Management Program netted about 20 arrests two summers ago for people in two counties improperly picking the wild American plant without the proper permits.
Prosecution is difficult to boot.
Poaching is always a possibility. Yet, most wild herbs are picked legally, and some coveted wild ginseng is plucked from federal property, such as Indiana's Hoosier National Forest. Kentucky is at the heart of the wild ginseng range, and a rural tradition of passing down techniques from generation to generation has helped the state consistently rank at the top of U.S. production, with 14.8 metric tons pulled up in 1996 alone. And harvesting is an accepted tradition in some places. In West Virginia, one of the nation's top three ginseng states, more than 20,000 households are thought to pick the popular root.