The flower language of gentian is "falling in love with a sorrowful you"

Gentian is a plant of the Gentianaceae family. Perennial herb, 30-60 cm tall; roots yellow-white, rope-like, over 20 cm long. Stems erect, stout, often purplish-brown, rough. Leaves opposite, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-7 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, with 3-5 veins, acute or acuminate, sessile, margins and lower midrib rough. Flowers clustered at stem apex or in leaf axils; bracts lanceolate, nearly as long as the calyx; calyx bell-shaped, 2.5-3 cm long, lobes linear-lanceolate, nearly as long as the calyx tube; corolla tubular-bell-shaped, blue-purple, 4-5 cm long, lobes ovate, pointed, plicae triangular, rarely two-toothed; stamens 5, filaments broadly winged at the base; style short, stigma 2-lobed. Capsule oblong, stalked; seeds linear, winged at the margins. Distributed in Korea, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China's Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Zhejiang and other places. Grows in meadows, thickets or forest edges.

Gentian

Growth habits:

Seed germination requires relatively high temperature and humidity, with appropriate light; at around 25°C, germination occurs in about a week, while below 20°C it takes about half a month to germinate. The seed germination rate is 60-80%. Seeds do not store well and have a short lifespan of 2.5 years, with a usable period of one year. The suitable growth temperature is 20-28°C, with 15°C at night; growth is unfavorable above 30°C. After sowing, it flowers and sets seed in the second year. Initial flowering occurs in early August, with a flowering period of 50 days, opening by day and closing by night. It prefers abundant light; the seed germination stage requires full light, the seedling emergence stage requires weak light, and the seedling growth stage requires natural light. Water requirements are moderate; the suitable soil moisture is 60-80% of field capacity. Maintaining a balance between dry and wet throughout the entire growth period is beneficial for growth and development.

Gentian

Functions and indications:

The root is used as medicine; it can clear fire from the liver and gallbladder. It purges excess fire of the liver and gallbladder and removes damp-heat from the lower jiao. It treats excessive heat in the liver meridian, convulsions and mania, Japanese encephalitis, headache, red eyes, sore throat, jaundice, heat dysentery, carbuncles and sores, swelling and pain of the scrotum, and damp itching of the genitals. Used for damp-heat jaundice, scrotal swelling and genital itching, leukorrhea, eczema and itching, deafness, hypochondriac pain, bitter taste in the mouth, and convulsions.

Gentian

The Zheng Lei Ben Cao records that the Kai Bao Ben Cao says: "The current annotation in another edition states: the leaves resemble those of black nightshade, and the taste is bitter like bile, hence the name." This is the explanation of the name "gentian." The Ben Cao Gang Mu also adopts this view.

In ancient times, practitioners of the occult arts often resorted to mystification; to show how precious a certain medicine was, they would often invoke dragons and phoenixes, such as "dragon whiskers" and "phoenix tail" and the like. The name "gentian" was presumably the same; in fact, it is because its root is very bitter like bile, while its leaves closely resemble those of black nightshade, and taking one from each gave rise to the name "gentian." As for the name "cao long dan" (herbaceous gentian), it was meant to indicate that this plant is not the bile of a true dragon, but merely a kind of herbaceous flower.