Tea plant : The tea plant (family of Ternstromiaceae - Botanical name: Camellia sinensis), also called green tea or more simply tea, just like the infusion of its leaves. It is originally from the Far East. It is widely cultivated for its leaves which, once dried and more or less oxidized, are used to prepare tea by infusion. It is a related species to the horticultural camellia, Camellia japonica. The term Camellia sinensis literally means “Chinese camellia”.
Brief history of the names: According to a text dated +350, the Huayang Guozhi 華陽國志 of Chang Qu, it was the mountain people of the southwest of present-day China who taught the Chinese in the north, in the first millennium BC our era, the food use of the leaves of the wild tea tree. The culture of tea is not originally Chinese but is said to have begun in the country of Shu 蜀, in present-day Sichuan in the 3161th century BC. AD, before the Chinese conquest in -XNUMX. Before our era, the Chinese designated a number of bitter plants with the character 荼 (pinyin: tú). More specific terms for tea only appeared later: 檟苦荼 jiǎkǔtú (where 苦 kǔ means “bitter”), 苦荼 kǔtú, 荈 chuǎn then 茗 míng, etc. It was not until the Tang dynasty that XNUMXth century so that the character 茶 (pinyin: chá, sinogram having one line less than the previous 荼 tu) gradually imposes itself on all the others. The tê pronunciation of this character in the Min Nan dialect, spoken in the Xiamen port region (Amoy), is the origin of the French term tea. The Chinese term for tea tree is 茶樹 pinyin: cháshù (tea-tree). you do not understand anything
The first Westerner to describe the tea plant was a German doctor staying in Japan, Engelbert Kaempfer, who gave the tree the name Thea japonense in 1712. A few decades later, in 1753, the Swedish botanist Linnaeus renamed it Thea sinensis. But nine years later, unaware of the manufacturing processes kept secret by the Chinese, Linnaeus saw fit to distinguish between green tea Thea viridis and black tea Thea bohea. After the correction of this error and the integration of the genus Thea into the genus Camellia (Sweet, Hort. Suburb. Lond.: 157.1818), the name Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze was adopted, in accordance with the rules of nomenclature botanical.
Description: The tea plant is an evergreen tree, which can reach 10 m to 15 m, up to 20 m for certain varieties. Its height is limited by the size in cultivation. There are wild tea plants several hundred years old measuring more than 30 m. The tea plant grows on acidic soils between 1 and 000 meters above sea level, in a hot and humid climate. The oldest tea plant in the world (2 years old) is located in Pu'er in the Yunnan province of China. The province of Fengqing prides itself on having the oldest tea tree in the world, 000 years old and with a canopy of 1800 m.
Sheets alternate, persistent, have an elongated, elliptical shape, 4 to 15 cm long, 2 to 7 cm wide. They are shiny, dark green, relatively tough, with a fairly thick texture. The petiole is short, 4 to 10 mm. The base is wedge-shaped, the apex is acute to acuminate, and the margins are sawn.
The flowers of the tea plant are white to light yellow, and measure between 2,5 and 4 cm in diameter. Solitary or in small groups of 3 or 4, they have five persistent sepals, five petals, sometimes up to 7 or 8, light yellow or creamy white in color, and very numerous yellow stamens often fused together. The ovary is trilocular.
The fruits are capsules with loculicidal dehiscence, approximately 1,5-3 cm in diameter. The seeds can be pressed to make an oil.
The different kinds of tea are obtained from this single species. By treating the tea leaves differently, we obtain green, white, black tea, etc. (see the tea article for more details on tea making).
There are several forms of this species:
– Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, Chinese tea, originally from Yunnan.
– Camellia sinensis var. assamica or Camellia assamica, native to China and the Indian subcontinent.
– Camellia sinensis var cambodiensis uncultivated variety
– Camellia sinensis forma parvifolia.
Varieties of tea plant: There is a wide variety of tea plants obtained by cloning, propagation from a seed, etc. The three main types of tea plants are:
Camellia sinensis var assamica: it can reach more than 15 m in the wild. Shiny, light, flexible and large leaves (up to 20 cm) with a fairly thick texture. The Assamica type tea plant and its hybrids are present in regions experiencing heavy rain (the monsoon) such as lowland plantations. It was “discovered” in 1823 by Major Robert Bruce in Assam and subsequently cultivated throughout India and Sri Lanka by British companies. The majority of tea produced in the world comes from this variety.
Camellia sinensis var sinensis: in the wild its size is around less than 5 m. The leaves are small (3 to 10 cm), rigid and dull. The Chinese type tea plant and its hybrids are grown in regions that can experience low temperatures (Japan, China, Georgia, Iran, Turkey) as well as in high altitude plantations. It is robust and has relatively good resistance to drought. It is the oldest species of tea plant known and cultivated. It produces some of the most sought-after teas. Some plants still cultivated are said to be over a thousand years old.
Camellia sinensis var cambodiensis: 6 to 10 m, with shiny leaves, and yellow-green when young. The size is intermediate between sinensis and assamica. This variety is not cultivated.
There are also many cultivated hybrids (or cultivars). In China, there are officially 95 cultivars.
Distribution and habitat: Camellia sinensis is found in the wild in the mountainous area encompassing southwest China, northern Thailand, Laos and Assam, and southeastern Burma.
It is widely cultivated in warm temperate or tropical zones, mainly in China, India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Japan, but also in Kenya, Turkey, Indonesia, Argentina and Mauritius and the Azores.
Pharmacopoeia : Tea tree leaves, when unfermented, are used in herbal medicine to treat overweight, fatigue or water retention. The constituents of tea stimulate the secretion of adrenaline and increase its duration of action, therefore promoting lipolysis (release and elimination of fats from adipose tissue). As this action is complemented by a limitation of the absorption of calories at the intestinal level, by tannins, the prescription is justified for overweight.
Ornamentation: Certain varieties, appreciated for the quality of their foliage and their flowering, are cultivated as ornamental plants, like the Japanese camellia.