Camellia

Where it grows

Camellia japonica grows wild in coastal forests of southern Japan, Korea, and eastern China; the related sasanqua (C. sasanqua) flowers earlier in autumn; and the source of all true tea, C. sinensis, comes from southwestern China and the Yunnan-Assam border. Garden japonicas prefer mild winters, acid soil, and dappled shade.

How to recognise it

A dense evergreen shrub or small tree two to ten metres tall, with thick, glossy dark green oval leaves with finely toothed margins. The flowers are remarkably formal: from singles with golden boss of stamens to elaborate doubles and rose-form blooms five to fifteen centimetres across. Each flower drops whole rather than petal by petal, distinguishing them from roses.

Garden & cultural uses

Tea — green, white, oolong, and black — is processed entirely from the leaves of C. sinensis, the world’s most consumed prepared beverage after water. Cold-pressed camellia oil, tsubaki abura, has been used in Japanese skincare and cooking for centuries. Garden camellias number over thirty thousand named cultivars.

In symbolism

The flower features prominently in Chinese and Japanese poetry. The 1848 Verdi opera La Traviata, drawn from Dumas’s novel, made the white camellia the emblem of the courtesan who wore one on certain nights.