Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze

Shrub 2–5 m high or a small tree to 9 m. Twigs, petioles and leaves glabrescent, white pubescent on first year branchlets; terminal buds silvery grey sericeous. Leaf blades elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or oblong, 5–14 cm long, 2–7.5 cm wide, leathery, abaxially pale green and glabrous or pubescent, adaxially dark green, shiny, and glabrous, midvein ±raised on both surfaces; secondary veins 7–9 on each side of midvein and ±raised on both surfaces; reticulate veins visible on both surfaces; base cuneate to broadly cuneate; margin serrate to serrulate with about 30–40 teeth on each side of the midrib; apex bluntly acute to acuminate and with an obtuse tip; petiole 4–7 mm long, glabrescent, grooved on the upper surface. Flowers pleasantly perfumed, axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster, 2.5–3.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 5–10 mm long, recurved, pubescent or glabrous, thickened toward apex; bracteoles 2, caducous, ovate, c. 2 mm long. Calyx lobes 5, persistent, dimorphic, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 3–5 mm, outside glabrous or white pubescent, inside white sericeous; margin ciliolate. Petals 6–8, white, dimorphic; outer petals 1–3 sepaloid, 10–14 mm long; inner petals obovate to broadly obovate, 17–18 mm long, 12–20 mm wide, basally connate; apex rounded. Stamens numerous, 0.8–1.3 cm long, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for c. 2 mm. Ovary globose, longitudinally ribbed, densely white pubescent, tomentose or subglabrous, 3-loculed; ovules about 4–6 per locule. Style c. 10 mm long, glabrous or base pubescent, apically 3-lobed. Capsule oblate, 2-coccal, or rarely 3-coccal and globose, 1–1.5 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, 1-or 2-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp c. l mm thick; calyx persistent at the base. Seeds brown, subglobose, 10–15 mm long, 10–12 mm wide.

A tropical and subtropical plant. It suits warm temperate climates. It needs light, humus rich soils. Soils should be well drained. A pH less than 6 is best. It requires an open sunny position. It is damaged by drought and by frost. It is common in the wet highlands of many tropical countries. A rainfall over 1,500 mm is suitable. Temperatures in the range 13°-30°C are suitable. In Nepal it grows between 450-1200 m altitude. It suits hardiness zones 10-12. Hobart Botanical Gardens. In Sichuan and Yunnan.

The leaves are used for tea. The leaves are fermented and eaten in Burma. They are prepared as a vegetable by mixing with garlic, salt, oil and other ingredients. The oil from the seeds is used as a sweetish seasoning and cooking oil.

Plants are normally grown by cuttings or layering. They can be grown from seed. Because the seed out breed, this produces a mixture of plants. For seed production special trees are kept and not pruned. The capsule matures after 9-12 months. Seed need to be sown fresh. Seeds can be sown in a nursery and transplanted, or sown and staked in the field. When seedlings are about 3-4 years old they are pruned back to about 10 cm from the ground then transplanted. From cuttings short stem cuttings with a single leaf and its bud in the leaf axil are used. These are grown in moist, shaded propagating nurseries. The cuttings are transplanted after about 1 year. Tea is commercially planted at 5,000-7,000 plants per hectare. That is a spacing of 1.2 m by 1.5 m. Trees are pruned to encourage side branches. The bush height is normally pruned to about 60 cm. The leaves grow in flushes at 70-90 day cycles. Two to four leaves are plucked each 7-14 days from the tree but only every 70-90 days from any one branch shoot. Plants are pruned back each 2-5 years.