Tea

Tea

Scientific name: Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze

English name: Tea

Local names: Cha, Cha Gachh.

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1988)

Botanical Description of Tea 

Habit:A shrub or small tree, young stem and branches glabrous.

Leaves:Leaves alternate, 4-25 x 1.5-6.0 cm, obovate-lanceolate, serrate, obtuse to shortly cuspidate-acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, membranous to coriaceous, glabrous above, hairy beneath, petioles short.

Flowers:Flowers white, axillary, solitary or in fascicles of 2-6, fragrant, petioles 6-10 mm long, bracteoles 2-3, caducous. Sepals 5-7, unequal, persistent.Petals 5-7, white, ovate, broadly ovate to orbicular, concave.

Androecium:Stamens 100-300, each 8-10 mm long, outer ones connate at the base and adnate to the base of petals, glabrous, inner ones free, anthers 2-celled, yellow.

Gynoecium:Ovary superior, 3-5 locular, densely hairy, ovules 4-6 in each locule, styles 5-7 mm long, glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy.

Fruits:Fruit a sub-globose capsule, 3-seeded.

Table 1. Tea Varieties Developed by Bangladesh Tea Research Institute, Srimangol, Bangladesh