(a) It is unlawful for any person to dig, harvest, collect or remove wild ginseng from any land for the purpose of sale or export, on any date not within the wild ginseng harvest season established by § 70-8-203.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 70-8-204

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Cultivated ginseng: means ginseng growing in tilled beds under shade of artificial structures or under natural shade where shrubs or other competing vegetation have been removed and the soil has been prepared to enhance the growth of the ginseng. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
  • Export: means to transport, cause to be transported or deliver to any person for the purpose of transportation from any place in this state to any place outside of this state. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
  • Ginseng: means the plant panax quinquefolius of the araliaceae family. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
  • Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Landowner: means the owner or lessee of land or the duly authorized agent of such owner or lessee. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
  • Person: means an individual, association, partnership, or corporation. See Tennessee Code 70-1-101
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Public road: means the traveled portion of, and the shoulders on each side of, any road or highway maintained for public travel by a county, city, city and county, the state, or the United States government, and includes all bridges, culverts, overpasses, fills, and other structures within the limits of the right-of-way of any such road or highway. See Tennessee Code 70-1-101
  • Sale: means any transfer of possession or ownership for money or other consideration. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
  • Sell: includes the offering or possessing for sale, bartering, exchanging or trading. See Tennessee Code 70-1-101
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Wild ginseng: means ginseng occurring in its native woodland habitat, and includes the ginseng that is growing naturally in that habitat or that was introduced or increased in abundance in its natural habitat by sowing ginseng seed, introducing plantlets sourced from wild ginseng stock, or by transplanting ginseng plants from other woodland areas. See Tennessee Code 70-8-202
(b) It is unlawful for any person to dig, harvest, collect or remove from any land, for the purpose of sale or export, any wild ginseng plant that has green berries or that has less than three (3) prongs.
(c) It is unlawful for any person who has dug, harvested, collected or removed wild ginseng from any land for the purpose of sale or export to:

(1) Remove the berries of the wild ginseng from the approximate location from which the wild ginseng was dug, harvested, collected or removed; or
(2) Fail, immediately after such digging, harvest, collection or removal, to plant the berries of the wild ginseng in the approximate location from which the wild ginseng was dug, harvested, collected or removed.
(d) It is unlawful to sell or offer for sale wild or cultivated ginseng that was harvested or collected from any state other than Tennessee unless such ginseng has been certified or otherwise approved for export by the state from which the ginseng was harvested, collected, or removed. A certificate shall accompany all wild and cultivated ginseng from other states showing that it has been certified and approved for export.
(e) It is unlawful for any person, without permission of the landowner, to enter the property of the landowner and dig, harvest, collect, or remove wild or cultivated ginseng. This subsection (e) shall not apply to any employee or contractor of the federal government or of the state or of any political subdivision of the state engaged in any type of planning, construction, or maintenance work upon any proposed or existing federal, state, county, or other public road or highway, or highway right-of-way, while performing such work in the course of employment or contract work with the federal, state, or local government.
(f) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly dig, harvest, collect or remove wild ginseng from any land that such person does not own, on any date not within the wild ginseng harvest season established by § 70-8-203.
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