Camellia

Leaves of Camellia sinensis, the tea plant

Camellias are evergreen shrubs or small trees up to 20 m (66 ft) tall. Their leaves are alternately arranged, simple, thick, serrated, and usually glossy. Their flowers are usually large and conspicuous, one to 12 cm in diameter, with five to nine petals in naturally occurring species of camellias. The colors of the flowers vary from white through pink colors to red; truly yellow flowers are found only in South China and Vietnam. Tea varieties are always white-flowered. Camellia flowers throughout the genus are characterized by a dense bouquet of conspicuous yellow stamens, often contrasting with the petal colors.[4][5] The so-called "fruit" of camellia plants is a dry capsule, sometimes subdivided in up to five compartments, each compartment containing up to eight seeds.

The various species of camellia plants are generally well-adapted to acid soils rich in humus, and most species do not grow well on chalky soil or other calcium-rich soils. Most species of camellias also require a large amount of water, either from natural rainfall or from irrigation, and the plants will not tolerate droughts. However, some of the more unusual camellias – typically species from karst soils in Vietnam – can grow without too much water.

Camellia plants usually have a rapid growth rate. Typically they will grow about 30 cm per year until mature – though this does vary depending on their variety and geographical location.

Camellia plants are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species; see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Camellia. Leaves of the Japanese camellia (C. japonica) are susceptible to the fungal parasite Mycelia sterile (see below for the significance).

Camellia reticulata is rare in the wild but has been cultivated for hundreds of years.

Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is of major commercial importance because tea is made from its leaves. The species C. sinensis is the product of many generations of selective breeding in order to bring out qualities considered desirable for tea. However, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage. For example, in some parts of Japan, tea made from C. sasanqua leaves is popular.

Tea oil is a sweet seasoning and cooking oil made by pressing the seeds of C. oleifera, C. japonica, and to a lesser extent other species such as C. crapnelliana, C. reticulata, C. sasanqua and C. sinensis. Relatively little-known outside East Asia, it is the most important cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in southern China.

Camellia oil is commonly used to clean and protect the blades of cutting instruments.

Camellia oil pressed from seeds of C. japonica, also called tsubaki oil or tsubaki-abura (椿油) in Japanese, has been traditionally used in Japan for hair care.[6] C. japonica plant is used to prepare traditional antiinflammatory medicines.[7]

The camellia parasite fungus mycelia sterile PF1022 produces a metabolite named PF1022A. This is used to produce emodepside, an anthelmintic drug.[8]

Mainly due to habitat destruction, several camellias have become quite rare in their natural range. One of these is the aforementioned C. reticulata, grown commercially in thousands for horticulture and oil production, but rare enough in its natural range to be considered a threatened species.

The earliest fossil record of Camellia are the leaves of †C. abensis from the upper Eocene of Japan, †C. abchasica from the lower Oligocene of Bulgaria and †C. multiforma from the lower Oligocene of Washington, United States.[9]

Camellias were cultivated in the gardens of China and Japan for centuries before they were seen in Europe. The German botanist Engelbert Kaempfer reported[10] that the "Japan Rose", as he called it, grew wild in woodland and hedgerow, but that many superior varieties had been selected for gardens. He was told that the plant had 900 names in Japanese. Europeans' earliest views of camellias must have been their representations in Chinese painted wallpapers, where they were often represented growing in porcelain pots.

The first living camellias seen in England were a single red and a single white, grown and flowered in his garden at Thorndon Hall, Essex, by Robert James, Lord Petre, among the keenest gardeners of his generation, in 1739. His gardener James Gordon was the first to introduce camellias to commerce, from the nurseries he established after Lord Petre's untimely death in 1743, at Mile End, Essex, near London.[11]

With the expansion of the tea trade in the later 18th century, new varieties began to be seen in England, imported through the British East India Company. The Company's John Slater was responsible for the first of the new camellias, double ones, in white and a striped red, imported in 1792. Further camellias imported in the East Indiamen were associated with the patrons whose gardeners grew them: a double red for Sir Robert Preston in 1794 and the pale pink named "Lady Hume's Blush" for Amelia, the lady of Sir Abraham Hume of Wormleybury, Hertfordshire (1806). The camellia was imported from England to America in 1797 when Colonel John Stevens brought the flower as part of an effort to grow attractions within Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.[12] By 1819, twenty-five camellias had bloomed in England; that year the first monograph appeared, Samuel Curtis's, A Monograph on the Genus Camellia, whose five handsome folio colored illustrations have usually been removed from the slender text and framed. Camellias that set seed, though they did not flower for more than a decade, rewarded their growers with a wealth of new varieties. By the 1840s, the camellia was at the height of its fashion as the luxury flower. The Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died young in 1847, inspired Dumas' La Dame aux camélias and Verdi's La Traviata.

The fashionable imbricated formality of prized camellias was an element in their decline, replaced by the new hothouse orchid. Their revival after World War I as woodland shrubs for mild climates has been paralleled by the rise in popularity of Camellia sasanqua.

The tea camellia, C. sinensis, has many commercial cultivars selected for the taste of their leaves once processed into tea leaves.

Today camellias are grown as ornamental plants for their flowers; about 3,000 cultivars and hybrids have been selected, many with double or semi-double flowers. C. japonica is the most prominent species in cultivation, with over 2,000 named cultivars. Next are C. reticulata with over 400 named cultivars, and C. sasanqua with over 300 named cultivars. Popular hybrids include C. × hiemalis (C. japonica × C. sasanqua) and C. × williamsii (C. japonica × C. saluenensis). Some varieties can grow to a considerable size, up to 100 m², though more compact cultivars are available. They are frequently planted in woodland settings, alongside other calcifuges such as rhododendrons, and are particularly associated with areas of high soil acidity, such as Cornwall and Devon in the UK. They are highly valued for their very early flowering, often among the first flowers to appear in the late winter. Late frosts can damage the flower buds, resulting in misshapen flowers.[13]

There is great variety of flower forms:

• single (flat, bowl- or cup-shaped)
• semi-double (rows of large outer petals, with the centre comprising mixed petals and stamens)
• double:
  • paeony form (convex mass of irregular petals and petaloids with hidden stamens)
  • anemone form (one or more rows of outer petals, with mixed petaloids and stamens in the centre)
  • rose form (overlapping petals showing stamens in a concave centre when open)
  • formal double (rows of overlapping petals with hidden stamens)

Portrait of a New Zealand suffragette, circa 1880. The sitter wears a white camellia, symbolic of support for advancing women's rights.

The Camellia family of plants in popular culture.

• The following cities are nicknamed the "Camellia City" of each state: Greenville, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Fort Walton Beach, Florida; Slidell, Louisiana; McComb, Mississippi; Newberg, Oregon; and, Thomson, Georgia is nicknamed the "Camellia City of the South".
• The camellia is the state flower of Alabama.[24]
• The Camellia Bowl is a post-season college football game hosted by the NCAA.
• Alexandre Dumas fils wrote the novel and stage adaptation The Lady of the Camellias, wherein the flower is a symbol of a courtesan's sexual availability.
• Augusta National Golf Club's 10th hole is named "Camellia", one of many references to the plant nursery originally on the site of the course.
• Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem entitled "Camellia" about a youth's longing for a young woman he sees on the train.
• In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose's camellia bushes after she insults his family, yet he later receives a camellia bud from the dying woman.
• A white camellia flower is an iconic symbol of Chanel haute couture, a tradition started by Coco Chanel herself who identified with the heroine of Dumas' work.
• Camellias have major significance in the Akira Kurosawa film Sanjuro, likely due to their association with the concept of "a noble death" in samurai culture.
• White camellias became a symbol of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand and appears on the country's ten-dollar note.
• The Knights of the White Camelia was an organization similar to the Ku Klux Klan.
• Temple City, California's slogan since 1944 has been "Temple City, Home of Camellias", and the city has become well-known for its Camellia Festival.
• The camellia was a symbol of Brazil's abolitionist movement during the Imperial Age. It was common practice for abolitionists to plant camellias in a show of solidarity.
• An Argentinian military march is called "Avenida de las Camelias".

• List of Award of Garden Merit camellias

• Harder, A.; Holden–Dye, L.; Walker, R. & Wunderlich, F. (2005): Mechanisms of action of emodepside. Parasitology Research 97(Supplement 1): S1-S10. doi:10.1007/s00436-005-1438-z (HTML abstract)
• Mair, V.; Hoh, E. (2009): The True History of Tea. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1.

Wikispecies has information related to Camellia.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Camellia.

• The International Camellia Society
• The American Camellia Society
• The Southeastern Camellia Society
• Website with many Camellia illustrations from European and Japanese Camellia Books
• First Public Camellia Show historical marker