CAMELLIA SINENSIS

FAMILY :: THEACEAE
TEA: This is the source of common green and black tea. Stimulant, astringent. Grows well (though slowly) in mild temperate zones and grows easily in tropical conditions. Young plants should be grown in partial shade and set into full sun the third or fourth year. Loves rich acid soil and continuous moisture. Dark shiny green leaves with fragrant dull white 1½” flowers.

It’s not important, possibly, that all of the commercial tea you buy from any source is either picked by machine (lower quality, containing stems and older leaves) or by slaves. Quality tea would be 10-20 times more expensive than you pay now if the people who picked it were treated as human beings. Even the little booklet put out by the US Government at the turn of the century, Home Grown Tea, recommends that you have your “servants” pick it.