Saltmeadow Cordgrass Adheres to a Body on Elementary's Flight Risk

Summary: Saltmeadow cordgrass likely accommodates the body of the one person aware of another in an airplane cargo area on Elementary's Flight Risk Nov. 8, 2012.

Limonium nashii (Sea lavender) with Spartina patens (saltmeadow cordgrass); North Shore, Atlantic coastal Massachusetts; Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, 07:32:38: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Saltmeadow cordgrass acts as a second crime scene associated with a first crime scene in a private airplane's cargo area on Elementary procedural drama television series episode Flight Risk Nov. 8, 2012.

Director David Platt and writer Corinne Brinkerhoff build the first season's sixth episode around one body too many at a crash site and amid saltmeadow cordgrass. Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) concludes that the extra weight from a corpse crammed into the cargo compartment conduced to an airplane crash with four casualties. Sherlock deduces the deliberate death of lawyer Hank Gerrard (David Shumbris) before departure time, not during the aerial disaster, of an airplane dedicated to drug smuggling.

Precinct police department and prosecuting attorney's office employees always enter into the case files examples of perpetrator cooperation, such as execution site in saltmeadow cordgrass swamps.

Sherlock figures from finding saltmeadow cordgrass that Charlie Cooper (Brian Kerwin) flung Owen Barts (Matthew Humphreys), one of two Key Star Charters pilots, into brackish waters.

Saltwater cordgrass grows from germinated seeds, underground stems and vegetative fragments in Alley Pond Park and Jamaica Bay brackish (from Middle Dutch brac, "slightly salty") waters. The scientific name Spartina patens (from Greek σπαρτίνη, "cord" and Latin patēns, "open") cordage honed like Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) and roots more reproductive than seeds. The Poaceae (from Greek πόα, "fodder" and Latin -āceus, "resembling") family member institutes flowering April through October and seeding from one side of its above-ground stems.

Saltmeadow cordgrass juxtaposes reproduction asexually by downward-rooting, upward-shooting underground stems and sexually by seeds germinating at 65 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (18.33 to 35 degrees Celsius).

Offshore breezes keep saltmeadow cordgrass seeds wind-dispersed from wheat-like, wind-pollinated, yellow 1.18- to 8.66-inch (3- to 22-centimeter) clusters of two to 30 purple-flowered, scaly, winter-browned spikelets.

Fringed 0.0197-inch (0.5-millimeter) ligules (from Latin ligula, "strap") link 6- to 12-inch (15.24- to 30.48-centimeter) by 0.0197- to 0.197-inch (0.5- to 5-millimeter) leaves' blades and sheaths. Arching 11.81- to 59.06-inch (30- to 150-centimeter) culms, as above-ground stems, merge into dense, rumpled, whorled mats brown-white in cooler, and green-white in warmer, months. Wiry, 0.079- to 0.158-inch (2- to 4-millimeter) diameter rhizomes (from Greek ῥίζα, "root" and σώμα, "body") net 2-foot (0.61-meter) annual above- and below-ground growth horizontally outward.

Beaches, brackish marshes, dunes, mudflats, overwashes and sandflats offer saltmeadow cordgrass, observed by William Aiton (1731-Feb. 2, 1793) and Gotthilf Muhlenberg (Nov. 17, 1753-May 23, 1815).

Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), saltmeadow rush (Juncus gerardii) and needle rush (Juncus roemerianus), Olney three-square (Scirpus americanus) and saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) prevail seaward, landward and adjacently.

Clayey to loamy or sandy, coarse to fine soils with soil and water salinity maximally 3.91 and 35 parts per thousand qualify as saltmeadow cordgrass habitats. Sustainability requires 46.85- to 59.06-inch (1,190- to 1,500-millimeter) annual rainfall, 0- to 13-foot (0- to 3.9-meter) altitudes above sea level and soil pHs 3.7 to 7.9. Canada from Newfoundland into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the United States from Maine through Florida and Texas, and northeast Mexico support coastally native saltmeadow cordgrass.

Too many bodies turn up soil and water nutrient content and organic matter levels and turn down territorial takeovers by saltmeadow cordgrass in intertidal salt marshes.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) tackles an airplane crash site crime scene in CBS Elementary's Flight Risk (season 1 episode 6): Elementary @CBSElementary, via Facebook Nov. 6, 2012

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Limonium nashii (Sea lavender) with Spartina patens (saltmeadow cordgrass); North Shore, Atlantic coastal Massachusetts; Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, 07:32:38: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/massdep/4598902239/

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) tackles an airplane crash site crime scene in CBS Elementary's Flight Risk (season 1 episode 6): Elementary @CBSElementary, via Facebook Nov. 6, 2012, @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/posts/514235011922431

For further information:

Aiton, William. 1789. "Dactylis. Gen. pl. 86. patens." Pages 103-104. Hortus Kewensis; Or, A Catalogue of the Plants Cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, vol. I Monandriaj-Heptandria: 103-104. In Three Volumes. London: Printed for George Nicol, Bookseller to His Majesty, Pall Mall, M.DCC.LXXXIX.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3649864

Elementary @CBSElementary. 6 November 2012. “Does Sherlock get your vote for best detective? Get a sneak peek at Thursday's all new episode when he investigates a mysterious plane crash.” Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/posts/514235011922431

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. 1892. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London, England: George Newnes Ltd.

"Flight Risk." Elementary: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Nov. 8, 2012.

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-lesser-clovers-sherlocks-lucky.html

Muhlenberg, Henry. 1813. "48. Spartina, 5. patens, Hort. Kew." Catalogus Plantarum Americæ Septentrionalis, Huc Usque Cognitarum Indigenarum et Cicurum: Or, A Catalogue of the Hitherto Known Native and Naturalized Plants of North America, Arranged According to the Sexual System of Linnæus: 8. Lancaster PA: William Hamilton.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45791317

Schreber, J.C.D. 1789. "98. Spartina. Schreb." Page 43. In: Carolia Linné, Genera Plantarum Eorumque Characteres Naturales Secundum Numerum, Figuram, Situm et Proportionem Omnium Fructificationis Partium. Editio Octava Post Reichardianam Secunda Prioribus Longe Auctior atque Emendatior Curante D. Jo. Christiano Dan. Schreber. Volumen I. Francofurti ad Moenum: Sumtu Varrentrappii et Wenneri.
Available via La biblioteca digital del Real Jardín Botánico @ https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/viewer/12949/?offset=4#page=75

"Spartina patens." Signature Horticultural Services > Plants > Grasses and Grass Like Species > Native Herbaceous Perennial > Spartina alterniflora.
Available @ http://www.signaturehort.com/Plants/Spartina-alterniflora.html

Walkup, Crystal J. 1991. "Spartina patens." In: Fire Effects Information System [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
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