Tea

Other names

China Tea

Growth habit

Tree

Perennation

Cultivated as annual

Native distribution

China, Taiwan

Location

Robison Herb Garden

Source of plant

Camellia Forest Nursery

Description

Shrub or small tree 1-6m. Leaves mostly 5-9x2-3cm but to 12.5x4.5cm, elliptic, apex obtuse to broad obtuse, occasionally minutely cuspidate, base cuneate, margin bluntly serrulate to sinuate-serrulate, teeth incurved, black-tipped, coriaceous, dark glossy green and glabrous above, light green, villous beneath, epidermis smooth or verruculose; petioles 3-7mm. Flowers 1-2 in axils, 2-3 below terminal bud, nodding; pedicels 8-10mm; bracteoles 2-3, caducous, to 2mm; sepals 5-6, unequal, to 5mm, persistent in fruit; corolla 2cm, white; petals 7-8, to 2x2.3cm, broad-oval to sub-orbicular, concave; stamens to 13mm, united at base; ovary densely white-hairy; style to 10mm, 3-fid at apex. Capsule 3-coccate, cocci 11-15mm, seeds 1-2.

USDA Hardiness Zone

8

Special characteristics

tender perennial