Sinensis Variety Camellia Sinensis Tea Plant Botanical Illustrations

Summary: Sinensis variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images show small-leaved evergreens with single- to triple-clustered flowers.

Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, under synonym Camellia thea; F.E. Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen: Atlas (1888-1890),Plate 136: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Sinensis variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images allude to assorted shapes and sizes according to the ages and uses of the world's most famous and successful cultivated tea variety.

Camellia sinensis var. sinensis literally becomes "Chinese tea flower, Chinese variety" in English and boasts backstories that begin tea cultivation in ancient China around 2750 B.C. It counts among the more common currently cultivated varieties with Camellia sinensis var. assamica, Camellia var. cambodiensis, Camellia sinensis var. dehungensis and Camellia sinensis var. pubilimba. Carl Linnaeus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze's (June 23, 1843-Jan. 27, 1907) respective scientific descriptions in 1753 and 1887 dominate taxonomies.

Commercial tea plant cultivation emphasizes the Assamese and Chinese sinensis varieties in the Camellia genus examined by Jesuit Rev. George Kamel (April 21, 1661-May 2, 1706).

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

Sinensis tea plant varieties generate one to two black-brown, somewhat globe-like, thick seeds with 0.39- to 0.55-inch (1- to 1.4-centimeter) diameters from every capsule-like, flattened fruit. They have brown-green, oblate, shiny, smooth, triangle-shaped, 0.75-inch- (1.91-centimeter-) long fruits whose capsule-like, three-celled coverings open to expose mature seeds for dispersion by wildlife and winds. Hermaphroditic, stalked, 0.98- to 1.57-inch (2.49- to 3.99-centimeter) diameter sinensis tea plant variety flowers incline, above two leaf-like, short-lived bracts, from leaf axil junctures with stems.

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

The inner floral circle keeps three to five white petals fused at their bases even as three to five outer-circle petals know hairy sepal inner-side-like looks.

The outermost of four to five circles of yellow stamens likewise looks fused even as a three-lobed scar lounges atop the hairy, 0.39-inch- (1-centimeter-) long stylus. Sinensis variety Camellia sinensis tea plants maintain lighter green upper-sides as young shoots and deeper greens as older foliage with elliptical-oblong shapes and short, white-haired undersides. The 1.58- to 5.91-inch- (4- to 15-centimeter-) long, 0.79 to 1.97-inch- (4- to 15-centimeter-) broad leaves nestle into alternate niches along the sides of their stems.

Sinensis variety Camellia sinensis tea plant botanical illustrations and images offer 10- to 15-foot- (3.05- to 4.57-meter-) tall, 6- to 10-foot- (1.83- to 3.05-meter-) wide shrubs.

Sinensis variety tea plants persist in moist, nutrient-rich, sunny to semi-shaded, well-drained soils up through 4,921.26- to 8,202.1-foot (1,500- to 2,500-meter) altitudes above sea level.

The bushy, evergreen, multi-stemmed, small-leaved natives of highland China's western Yunnan region queue up in United States Department of Agriculture cold hardiness zones 7 through 9. Their 120- to 140-year life cycles require 39.37-plus-inch (1,000-plus-millimeter) annual rainfall and winter temperature ranges between 45 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and degrees Celsius). They survive natively, as cha hua (插画, "tea flower"), among evergreen laurel forest undergrowth in subtropical chilly, dry winters and hot, humid summers.

Sinensis variety Camellia sinensis tea plant illustrations and images team white-haired red bark balding into yellow-gray, silver-haired end buds and short-petioled, wedge-shaped leaves with serrated margins.

Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze introduced distribution in United States: PLANTS Database via USDA NRCS (U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service)

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, under synonym Camellia thea; F.E. Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen: Atlas (1888-1890), Plate 136: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/303208

Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze introduced distribution in United States: PLANTS Database via USDA NRCS (U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service) @ https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CASI16

For further information:

"21. Camellia sinensis (Linnaeus) Kuntze." Flora of China > Family List > FOC Vol. 12 > Theaceae > Camellia.
Available @ http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200014043

"Camellia sect. Camellia L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50315898

"Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/31600230

Köhler, F. E. (Franz Eugen). 1890. "Camellia Thea Link." Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in Naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit Kurz Erläuterndem Texte. Atlas zur Pharmacopoea Germanica, Austriaca, Belgica, Danica, Helvetica, Hungarica, Rossica, Suecica, Neerlandica, British Pharmacopoeia, zum Codex Medicamentarius, Sowie zur Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America. Band II: 136. Gera-Untermhaus, Germany: Fr. Eugen Köhler, 1888-1890.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/302852

Kuntze, (Carl Ernst) Otto. 1887. "Plantae Orientali-Rossicae." Trudy Imperatorskago S-Peterburgskago Botanicheeskago Sada (Acta Horti Petropolitani), Tomus X, Fasciculus I: 135-262.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15903307

Linnaei, Caroli (Carl Linnaeus). 1753. "Camellia." Species Plantarum: Exhibentes Plantas Rite Cognitas, ad Genera Relatas, cum Differentiis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus, Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, Secundum Systema Sexuale Digestas. Tomus II: 698. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358719

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