Question: Have I found ginseng???

[wanderwoods]

Greetings all,
I'm new to the idea of hunting wild ginseng. I live on a farm in rural Minnesota and found this patch in a wooded area near my home. I was wondering if anyone here could help me to confirm whether or not these are actually ginseng plants?
All have 3 to 6 shoots coming off each plant with 5 leaves on each. They appear to have bloomed already or are about to bloom. I have seen clusters of red berries in the fall. The wooded area they are in is primarily poplars and a few oaks.
Note: The root pic is from plants removed from middle of trail in wooded area that is usually mowed.

[Stump]

Welcome to the website!!

Swens is our ginseng guru, so I'm sure he'll chime in on your findings.

[Swens]

No, that is not ginseng. It is close to what it looks like. Here are some tips posted last week by Thirdmillenium that are pretty simple and easy at understanding. I do have a few photos of ginseng on here as well in this forum that you can check out.

"When I first started spotting ginseng I used a sort of mental checklist that becomes second nature after a few finds:

leaves serrated?
five leaves connected at same point?
the two leaves in the 5 leaf cluster closest to stem are significantly smaller (typically 1/3-1/2) than the other three leaves?
three or four 5-leaf cluster "prongs" originating from same point on main stem
white very small flower cluster on separate "prong" (early in season)
red berries on separate "prong" (later in season)"

[wanderwoods]

Thanks for the info.
What do you think this plant might be then?

[Swens]

To be honest, I have no idea what it is, but I do know that I would bet the farm that it is not ginseng. If I had to guess, I would say it is a plant that is part of a tree family by looking at the root structure. That is the best that I can do.