Camellia Sinensis

Camellia sinensis is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species" title="Species" >species</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant" title="Plant" >plant</a> whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce Chinese <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea" title="Tea" >tea</a>. It is of the genus <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia" title="Camellia" >Camellia</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language" title="Chinese language" >Chinese</a>: 茶花; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin" title="Pinyin" >pinyin</a>: Cháhuā), a genus of flowering plants in the family <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theaceae" title="Theaceae" >Theaceae</a>.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tea" title="White tea" >White tea</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea" title="Green tea" >green tea</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong" title="Oolong" >oolong</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu-erh_tea" title="Pu-erh tea" >pu-erh tea</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_tea" title="Black tea" >black tea</a> are all harvested from this species, but are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_processing" title="Tea processing" >processed differently</a> to attain different levels of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation" title="Oxidation" class="mw-redirect" >oxidation</a>.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukicha" title="Kukicha" >Kukicha</a> (twig tea) is also harvested fromCamellia sinensis, but uses twigs and stems rather than leaves. Common names include tea plant, tea tree, and tea shrub.

There are two major varieties used for tea, Chinese tea,Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, and Assam tea, Camellia sinensis var. assamica.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis#cite_note-1" >[2]</a>

Camellia, the camellias, is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus" title="Genus" >genus</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_plant" title="Flowering plant" >flowering plants</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family(biology)" title="Family (biology)" >family</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theaceae" title="Theaceae" >Theaceae</a>. They are found in eastern and southern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia" title="Asia" >Asia</a>, from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalaya" title="Himalaya" class="mw-redirect" >Himalaya</a> east to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea" title="Korea" >Korea</a> and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia" title="Indonesia" >Indonesia</a>. There are 100–250 described <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species" title="Species" >species</a>, with some controversy over the exact number. The genus was named by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolus_Linnaeus" title="Carolus Linnaeus" class="mw-redirect" >Linnaeus</a> after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuit" title="Jesuit" class="mw-redirect" >Jesuit</a> botanist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Joseph_Kamel" title="Georg Joseph Kamel" >Georg Joseph Kamel</a>from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brno" title="Brno" >Brno</a>, who worked in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines" title="Philippines" >Philippines</a>, though he never described a camellia. This genus is famous throughout <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia" title="East Asia" >East Asia</a>; camellias are known as cháhuā (茶花) in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese(language)" title="Chinese (language)" class="mw-redirect" >Chinese</a>, "flowering tea", an apt designation, as tsubaki (椿) in<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language" >Japanese</a>, as dongbaek-kkot (동백꽃) in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language" title="Korean language" >Korean</a> and ashoa trà or hoa chè in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language" title="Vietnamese language" >Vietnamese</a>.

The most famous member – though often not recognized as a camellia – is certainly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_plant" title="Tea plant" class="mw-redirect" >tea plant</a> (C. sinensis). Among the ornamental species, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Camellia" title="Japanese Camellia" class="mw-redirect" >Japanese Camellia</a> (C. japonica) (which despite its name is also found in Korea and Eastern China) and C. sasanqua are perhaps the most widely known, though most camellias grown for their flowers are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivar" title="Cultivar" >cultivars</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)" title="Hybrid (biology)" >hybrids</a>.

The name Camellia is taken from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinized_name" title="Latinized name" class="mw-redirect" >Latinized name</a> of Rev.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Joseph_Kamel" title="Georg Joseph Kamel" >Georg Kamel</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis#cite_note-2" >[3]</a> S.J. (1661–1706), a Czech-born <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuit" title="Jesuit" class="mw-redirect" >Jesuit</a> lay brother, pharmacist, and missionary to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines" title="Philippines" >Philippines</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus" title="Carl Linnaeus" >Carl Linnaeus</a> chose his name for the genus to honor Kamel's contributions to botany (although Kamel did not discover or name this plant, or any Camellia, and Linnaeus did not consider this plant a Camellia but a Thea). The namesinensis means <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China" title="China" >from China</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin" title="Latin" >Latin</a>.

Four varieties of Camellia sinensis are recognized.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis#cite_note-FOC-0" >[1]</a> Of these C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var.assamica (J. W. Masters) Kitamura are most commonly used for tea, and C. sinensis var. pubilimba Hung T. Chang and C. sinensis var. dehungensis (Hung T. Chang & B. H. Chen) T. L. Ming are sometimes used locally.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis#cite_note-FOC-0" >[1]</a>