Camellia sinensis (the tea plant) (茶樹, cháshù)
Camellia sinensis (茶樹) is the evergreen plant of the tea family whose leaves make all true tea: green, white, oolong, red, and pu-erh. The differences between teas come from processing, not from different plants.
All true tea — from delicate Gu Zhu Zi Sun to a century-old sheng pu-erh — is made from the leaves of a single biological species: Camellia sinensis, the Chinese camellia. This is worth saying distinctly, because intuition resists it: green tea and shu pu-erh seem far too unalike. But the differences are created not by different plants but by processing — oxidation, firing, fermentation — and only secondarily by the plant's variety and terroir.
Within the species two main varieties are distinguished. Camellia sinensis var. sinensis is the small-leaf "Chinese" bush, frost-hardy and subtle in taste; it makes most green and white teas and oolongs. Camellia sinensis var. assamica is the large-leaf "Assam" tree of warm lands, powerful and tannic; it is the basis of pu-erhs and many red teas. In the forests of Yunnan, assamica grows as full-height trees — the old gu shu trees of Yiwu are simply century-old camellias that were never prevented from being themselves. Herbal "teas" — rooibos, hibiscus, mint — have no connection to the camellia at all: they are infusions of other plants.
For the practitioner, botany gives a sober view of the shop shelf: the words "elite variety" are meaningful only as the combination of cultivar, place, and processing. And a small miracle for contemplation: a cup of tea is the leaf of one plant species, read by humanity in a thousand different ways.
Teas where this appears
Chinese tea glossary