Ginseng is a perennial herbaceous plant with smooth and hairless stems and leaves. The ginseng can grow up to 60 cm tall. Let's take a look at the pictures and learn about the value of ginseng.
Ginseng Picture
Ginseng
Stem
The whole plant is smooth and hairless, with soft and juicy stems and leaves. It can grow up to 60 cm tall and has multiple branches at the base. The main root is thick, cylindrical or spindle-shaped, and the outer surface is brown or blackish-brown.
Ginseng Stem
Leaves
The leaves are opposite, with short petioles or almost no petioles. The leaf blade is inverted ovate or inverted ovate-oblong, 5-7 cm long and 2-3.5 cm wide. The base gradually narrows, and the apex is acute or obtuse and entire.
Ginseng Leaves
Flowers
The inflorescence is conical and borne on the top of the branched stem. The peduncle is purplish-green or dark green, and the flowers are small, numerous, and light purple-red, with a diameter of about 0.6 cm. The flower stalk is slender. There are 2 sepals, ovate and pointed, and they fall off early. There are 5 petals, inverted ovate or elliptic. There are more than 10 stamens with slender filaments. The ovary is spherical, and the style is slender with a 3-lobed stigma that bends outward at the tip.
Ginseng Flowers
The flowering and fruiting period is from May to October.
Fruit
The fruit is a capsule, spherical, with a diameter of about 0.4 cm. When ripe, it is gray-brown. The seeds are small, black, and flattened.
Ginseng Fruit
Three Values of Ginseng
1. Edible
After washing the stems and leaves, they can be stir-fried or cooked in soup. The tender stems and leaves can also be pickled with salt and used as a side dish.
2. Medicinal
Crushing fresh stems and leaves can be used externally to treat swelling and toxins. Taste: Sweet and neutral.
Effects: Diuretic and anti-inflammatory, invigorating the spleen and moistening the lungs, stopping cough, regulating menstruation. It is used to treat dysentery, diarrhea, damp-heat jaundice, internal hemorrhoids bleeding, insufficient lactation, infantile malnutrition, yellow water sores, spleen deficiency fatigue, pulmonary tuberculosis with coughing blood, and irregular menstruation. The leaves can promote lactation, reduce swelling, and eliminate toxins. It is used to treat urinary difficulties, hemorrhoids, and swollen ulcers.
3. Ornamental
Can be used for flower beds and rockeries, or as potted plants.
