The Tea shrub
Tea, a tree-like plant, is maintained shrub
-like for the tea cultivation by regular pruning. Tea belongs to the species of
the camellia. The evergreen shrub has got dark, ridged, leather-like leaves. The
flower is white or rose-coloured; the fruit is small with a hard shell, similar
to a hazelnut. Nowadays, its reproduction is rarely done through pollination but
rather vegetative, where cuttings are grown on the high-yielding parent
shrub.
Thea Sinsensis (or Chinese Tea) It remains
shrub-like even without regular cutting and grows to a height of only 3 - 4 m.
This shrub flourishes best in moderate climatic zones and can even withstand
frost. The China-tea plant has been cultivated for many thousand years which
resulted in an art variety of approximately 5,000, which are, however, not all
cultivated in notable amounts.
Thea Assamica (or
Assam-Tee) It becomes a grand tree of a height of 15 - 20 m if not cut
back regularly. This tea shrub requires a lot of warmth and is a purely tropical
plant. It was discovered in 1823 as a grown tree in the jungle of Northern
India. Only a few years later it was already cultivated. The Assam plant leaves
are larger than that of the China tea plant.
These two primal tea plants
have been crossbred again in order to develop finer, more aromatic and,
especially, more robust breeds. The so-called Assam-hybrid has
proven particularly suitable. It is important to acknowledge that the
differences in taste and quality not only depend on the plant itself, but also
on the cultivation region, its climatic conditions and the diligent plucking as
well as processing of the tea leaves.