Assamica Variety Camellia Sinensis Tea Plant Botanical Illustrations

Summary: Assamica variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images show big-leaved, fragrant-flowered, loose-branched, strong-rooted trees.

Thea chinensis L. varieties -- A1-3 var. viridis; B var. pubescens; C1-2 var. Bohea; D1-2 var. assamica; L. Pierre, Flore Forestière (1885), Plate 114: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Assamica variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images adopt aesthetic approaches to the distribution ranges, life cycles and physical appearances of the world's second-most famous and successful cultivated tea variety.

Assamica varieties bear the common name Assam tea and the scientific name Camellia sinensia var. assamica ([Reverend] Kamel's Chinese [tea plant], Assam variety) because of biogeography. Assamica, Camellia sinensis var. cambodiensis, Camellia sinensis var. dehungensis, Camellia sinensis var. pubilimba and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis commemorate George Kamel (April 21, 1661-May 2, 1706). Descriptions in 1844 and 1950 respectively by J.W. Masters, Superintendent of Tea Plantations in Assam, India, and Shirō Kitamura (Sept. 22, 1906-March 21, 2002) dominate taxonomies.

Commercialization of cultivated tea varieties emphasizes assamica and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis over Camellia sinensis var. cambodiensis, Camellia sinensis var. dehungensis and Camellia sinensis var. pubilimba.

March through November, December through February, March through July and August through October furnish Assam tea plant varieties with respective leafing, flowering, fruiting and seeding months.

Assam tea plant varieties generate up to four black-brown, flattened to spherical 0.39- to 0.51-inch- (10- to 13-millimeter-) thick seeds in three-celled hulls from each fruit. Brown-green, oblate (flat-edged), shiny, smooth, triangle-shaped, 0.75-inch- (19.05-millimeter-) long fruits hold assamica variety seeds within capsule- and hull-like, explosive coverings for dispersion by wildlife and winds. Hermaphroditic, stalked, 0.98- to 1.57-inch (2.5- to 4-centimeter) diameter Assam tea plant variety flowers incline, above two leaf-like, short-lived bracts, from leaf axil junctures within stems.

Assamica variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations jumble into every white-yellow flower one ovary, one stylus, five sepals, seven to eight petals and numerous stamens.

Their bases keep three to five inner-circle white petals fused even as their inner-sides keep three to five outer-circle petals as hairy as their counterpart sepals.

The outermost of four to five circles of yellow stamens likewise looks fused even as a three-lobed scar lodges atop the hairy, 0.39-inch- (1-centimeter-) long stylus. Assamica varieties maintain elliptic, evergreen, 8- to 14-inch- (203.2- to 355.6-millimeter-) long, 1.38- to 2.95-inch- (35- to 75-millimeter-) wide leaves with tooth-edged margins and white-haired undersides. Assamica varieties net the nickname large-leaved tea plants since noteworthier foliage than small-leaved sinensis variety's shoots nestles atop 0.16- to 0.39-inch- (4- to 10-millimeter-) long petioles.

Assamica variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images offer mature, maximum, tree-like 32- to 50-foot (9.75 to 15.24-meter) heights and 16-foot (4.88-meter) crown widths.

Assamica varieties prevail in Assam Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam at 328.08- to 6,233.59-foot (100- to 1,900-meter) altitudes above sea level.

The fast-growing, loose-branched, main-stemmed highland and marshland natives with strong taproots queue up for temperatures between 50 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 30 degrees Celsius). They require moist, nutrient-rich, sunny to semi-shaded, well-drained soils in United States Department of Agriculture cold hardiness zones 7 to 9 with 39.37-plus-inch (1,000-plus-millimeter) annual rainfall. Six- to 14-day harvests during two-month flushes between March and June and October and November respectively sustain darker, honey-like, maltier, spicier, stronger, tannin-rich colors and tastes.

Assamica variety Camellia sinensis tea plant illustrations and images track big-leaved, fragrant-flowered, high-canopied, loose-branched, main-stemmed, open-crowned, strong-rooted highland natives with black and pu-erh tea production-friendly leaves.

plucking Assam tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica); Amluckee Tea Estate, Amoni, eastern Nagaon district, central Assam, Northeast India; Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Thea chinensis L. varieties -- A1-3 var. viridis; B var. pubescens; C1-2 var. Bohea; D1-2 var. assamica; L. Pierre, Flore Forestière (1885), Plate 114: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40592691

plucking Assam tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica); Amluckee Tea Estate, Amoni, eastern Nagaon district, central Assam, Northeast India; Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nagaon/3798574842/

For further information:

"21c. Camellia sinensis var. assamica (J. W. Masters) Kitamura." Flora of China > Family List > FOC Vol. 12 > Theaceae > Camellia.
Available @ http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242310229

"Camellia sinensis var. assamica (J.W. Mast.) Kitam." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50105831

Kitamura, Siro. 1950. "On Tea and Camellias: [Camellia sinensis] var. assamica (Pierre) Kitam." Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica, vol. XIV, no. 2 (February 1950): 59.
Available via J-STAGE @ https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bunruichiri/14/2/14_KJ00001077611/_pdf/-char/ja

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 August 2013. "Sinensis Variety Camellia Sinensis Tea Plant Botanical Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/08/sinensis-variety-camellia-sinensis-tea.html

Masters, J.W. 29 March 1844. "A Few Observations on Tea Culture, by J.W. Masters, Esq., Late Superintendent of Tea Plantations in Assam. Presented by Major Francis Jenkins, Commissioner of Assam." Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, vol. III, part I, no. 1 (January to December 1844): 1-6. Calcutta, India: Bishop's College Press, MDCCCXLIV (1844).
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.43333/2015.43333.Journal-Of-The-Agricultural-And-Horticultural-Society-1844-Vol-3#page/n9/mode/1up

Masters, J.W. 1844. "The Assam Tea Plant Compared with the Tea Plant of China." Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, vol. III, part I, no. 2 (January to December 1844): 61. Calcutta, India: Bishop's College Press, MDCCCXLIV (1844).

Pierre, L. [Louis]. 1885. "Thea Chinensis. Sims." Flore Forestière de la Cochinchine. Septième Fascicule (1er Juillet 1885): Plate 114. Paris, France: Octave Doin.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40592695

Smith, Krisi. 2016. World Atlas of Tea: From the Leaf to the Cup, the World's Teas Explored and Enjoyed. London UK: Mitchell Beazley.

"Thea viridis var. assamica (J.W. Mast.) Choisy." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50105834