Tienchi-Flower Tea and Elementary's Evidence of Things Not Seen

Summary: Morland Holmes resists tienchi-flower tea even though Sherlock still relishes fermented shark in Elementary's Evidence of Things Not Seen Nov. 12, 2015.

Traditional Chinese medicine values health benefits of tienchi (Panax notoginseng) flower tea, also known as sanchi or sanqi; tienchi flowers (lower right): Randy•R @Randallr75, via Twitter June 3, 2015

It amazes Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), who never abjures fermented shark, that his father, Morland Holmes (John Noble), abstains from his favorite tienchi-flower tea in Elementary's Evidence of Things Not Seen.

Director Ron Fortunato and writers Robert Doherty and Jason Tracey broach shark and tienchi as Sherlock's favorite "brain food" and Morland's favorite tea Nov. 12, 2015. Season 4's second episode, as the Columbia Broadcasting System procedural drama series' 74th episode overall, considers a bittersweet Chinese herb and a bitter-tasting fermented Icelandic shark. Morland's herbal, nontoxic, warm decoction derives from 3,937.01- to 5,249.34-foot (1,200- to 1,800-meter) altitudes above sea level in northern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous district and Yunnan.

Morland inexplicably excludes, since 2003, daily maximum 0.529-ounce (15-gram) dosages, as 0.035- to 0.106-ounce (1- to 3-gram) powders or 0.106- to 0.318-ounce (3- to 9-gram) decoctions.

The flowering herbaceous perennial, found near latitude 23.5 degrees, in the Araliaceae spikenard family furnishes flowers, leaves and roots for fortifying blood, bones, livers and stomachs.

Tienchi-flower tea sources get the common names Chinese ginseng, notoginseng, mountain plant, three-seven root and tienchi ginseng in English and sanchi, sānqī and tiánqī in Chinese. The scientific name Panax notoginseng honors tienchi-related research by Isaac Henry Burkill (May 18, 1870-March 8, 1965) and Feng Hwai Chen (May 16, 1900-April 13, 1993). The common names and the scientific nomenclature, as "cure-all" pseudo-ginseng, indicate biogeographical, cultivational and cultural influences from Chinese mountain distribution ranges, growth habits and herbal medicine.

Each tienchi ginseng plant juggles one whorl of four palmately compound leaves atop one 15.75-inch- (40-centimeter-) high, glabrous (bristle-free, down-free, hairless, smooth), scaly, vertically striped stem.

Every parsley-like umbel about 1.38 inches (3.5 centimeters) in diameter keeps similar-lengthed stalks together around a common center and 20 to 50 yellow-green flowers, each five-petalled.

Individual flower-stalked, 0.39-inch (1-centimeter-) long pedicels and 4.72-inch- (12-centimeter-) long, vertically striped peduncles, as main stalks for the individual flower-clustered umbel, look hairless, lean and lithe. Cuplike calyxes of leaflike, whorled sepals maintain female flowers with two styles atop two-roomed ovaries and male flowers with one sterile, vestigial pistillode and five stamens. The common name three-seven plant notes tienchi ginseng's needing in-season flowers, seasonal foliage on three seven-bladed petioles (stem-attached stalks) and three- to seven-year-old fleshy, spindle-shaped roots.

Bamboo-like, budding, leafing, rooting rhizomes occur underground with two or more cylindrical 0.79- to 1.58-inch- (2- to 4-centimeter-) long roots 0.39 inch (1 centimeter) in diameter.

Tienchi powder and tienchi-flower tea provide herbal medicine patients and practitioners with edible, potable products even though tienchi ginseng produces, internally and naturally, bases and sugars.

Alkaloids and saponins respectively qualify as organic bases and natural compounds that queue up from the nitrogen cycle and for grape- and honey-like glucose (sugar) production. Saponins respect their linguistic origins in the Latin word sapo for soap since their processing renders foam for beverages and fire extinguishers and lather for detergents. Dark-colored, fresh-smelling, nutrient-rich soils in cultivated fields, sown for chen qi (seventh spring) or dong qi (seventh winter) harvest schedules, or in mountain wildernesses sustain tienchi.

Perhaps Morland turns down tienchi-flower tea because he tries not to take long-term medicinal treatments and because too much tienchi threatens circulatory and cold-fighting immune systems.

Sherlock's (Jonny Lee Miller) ignorance of his father's (John Noble) dishabituation of daily tienchi-flower (Panax notoginseng) tea epitomizes their relational standoff in Elementary tv series' Evidence of Things Not Seen (season 4 episode 2): CBS Elementary episode 4.02 promotional photo, via SpoilerTV Oct. 23, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Traditional Chinese medicine values health benefits of tienchi (Panax notoginseng) flower tea, also known as sanchi or sanqi; tienchi flowers (lower right): Randy•R @Randallr75, via Twitter June 3, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Randallr75/status/606029958687899648

Sherlock's (Jonny Lee Miller) ignorance of his father's (John Noble) dishabituation of daily tienchi-flower (Panax notoginseng) tea epitomizes their relational standoff in Elementary tv series' Evidence of Things Not Seen (season 4 episode 2): CBS Elementary episode 4.02 promotional photo, via SpoilerTV Oct. 23, 2015, @ https://www.spoilertv.com/2015/10/elementary-episode-402-evidence-of.html

For further information:

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