12/12/2025
Sanqi 🌱, often called “three-seven root,” earns its name from the plant’s unique growth cycles and the traditional belief that the root is most potent after three years of growth and seven years of rest.
Here in a shaded mountain farm, Heiner explores why Sanqi is considered one of the most precious medicinals in the Chinese materia medica, and why farmers go to extraordinary lengths to protect it.
Because the plant is notoriously fragile and slow to mature, nearly all commercial plantations rely heavily on agricultural sprays. Finding sources that avoid these shortcuts is rare. These farmers are committed to growing Sanqi with integrity, which is why their work, and this herb, holds such immense value.