Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Ericales > Theaceae > Camellia > Camellia sinensis

Camellia sinensis (tea)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. It is of the genus Camellia (Chinese: 茶花; pinyin: Cháhuā, literally: "tea flower") of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. Common names include "tea plant", "tea shrub", and "tea tree" (not to be confused with Melaleuca alternifolia, the source of tea tree oil, or Leptospermum scoparium, the New Zealand teatree).
View Wikipedia Record: Camellia sinensis

Infraspecies

Camellia sinensis buisanensis (Critically Endangered)
Camellia sinensis sinensis
Camellia sinensis var. assamica (Assam Tea)
Camellia sinensis var. dehungensis
Camellia sinensis var. pubilimba

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Camellia sinensis

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  None
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Shade Percentage [1]  82 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Low
Wind Reduction [1]  Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees
Scent [2]  The flowers are deliciously scented.
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  An essential oil is distilled from the fermented and dried leaves; It is used in perfumery and in commercial food flavouring; A non-drying oil is obtained from the seeds. Refined teaseed oil, made by removing the free fatty acids with caustic soda, then bleaching the oil with Fuller's earth and a sprinkling of bone black, makes an oil suitable for use in manufacture of sanctuary or signal oil for burning purposes, and in all respects is considered a favourable substitute for rapeseed, olive, or lard oils. The oil is different from cottonseed, corn, or sesame oils in that it is a non-drying oil and is not subject to oxidation changes, thus making it very suitable for use in the textile industry; it remains liquid below -18deg.C; A grey dye is obtained from the pink or red petals; The leaves contain 13 - 18% tannin; The leaves also contain quercetin, a dyestuff that, when found in other plants, is much used as a dye; The quantity of quercetin is not given; Wood - moderately hard, close and even grained. It is very good for walking sticks;
Height [2]  13.12 feet (4 m)
Width [2]  8.2 feet (2.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 7 Low Temperature: 0 F° (-17.8 C°) → 10 F° (-12.2 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Camellia sinensis

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8The Diversity of Plants as Feed Resources for the Java Gibbon (Hylobates moloch), Grizzled Langur (Presbytis cornata), and Silver Langur (Trachypithecus auratus) In Gunung Halimun National Park, Wartika Rosa Farida and Harun, Jurnal Primatologi Indonesia, Vol. 3, No. 2, Desember 2000, p.:55-61
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0