The Green Tea Plant Uncovered
Better to keep your green tea plant covered - or you could end up with a completely different variation of green tea than you expected.
The tea plant’s real name is Camellia Sinensis.
The “sinensis” is a loose translation for “Chinese”. As most tea plants originated in the Chinese regions before being taken to Japan by a Japanese monk.
“Camellia” was named after a Jesuit botanist – Georg Joseph Kamel. Although Georg was not the discoverer of the fabulous tea plant.
As you already know by now, the green tea and black tea plants are in fact the same plant. Wow, I am still getting over that hey!
The 3 common types of teas that are made from the tea plant are the widely found black tea, green tea and oolong tea.
A green tea plantation in Daeghun
The tea plant is native to South and South-east Asia. Mainly China, India and Japan. Of course, the tea plant can be cultivated all around the world.
Even in your back yard or porch. But I doubt that you would have enough space for a whole plantation. The green tea plant grows well in sub tropical and tropical regions - preferring a humid summer and dry winter. Green tea plants can tolerate temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit (that is -7 deg C)
The tea plant itself is an evergreen bush. That means it stays green all year round. The tea bush can grow up to 17 meters (30 feet) high, but by regular pruning and harvesting, these bushes are usually kept down to 2 meters.
2 meter high tea plants are easier to reach at harvest time, and saves the plantations the cost of buying extra long ladders.
And of course, it is the ideal age to be picking the leaves for production.
The tea plant has yellow fragrant flowers consisting of about 7 or 8 petals. The leaves are emerald green; while the older leaves are a darker shade of green and 4cm long. All the leaves have fine little hairs underneath. Oh yes, and the leaves are shaped like an eyelid. A Buddhist priest’s eyelid maybe?
Some believe that a Buddhist priest was so upset with himself when he fell asleep while meditating, that he ripped off his eyelids and threw them to the ground. The eye lids sprouted the tea plant, and the leaves took the shape of the priest’s eyelids. Make your own judgment call there.
> Read more on the History of Green Tea.
You can find about 200 different species of tea plant around the world. Mainly in the tropical and sub tropical regions receiving 2000mm of rainfall a year. The tea plants also prefer to be above sea level. Somewhere between 600m to 2000m up.
Seedlings are usually grown from a master tea plant that is only used to create seedlings. These green tea seedlings are kept in a green house for about 10 months. When they are strong enough, they are transplanted into an open field that has the protection trees with wide shade.
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