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Re: camellia sinensis

Carol Copperud wrote:
> 
> I have a "green tea" camellia (not exactly mediterranean) that I've had for
> about three years.  I noticed while weeding out my garden thug (wish I knew
> the name--it's a rampant ground cover that has leaves that look like celery
> leaves--although only one leaf per stem, and pretty yellow, buttercup-type
> flowers occasionally--covers a lot of boring bare patches under some hybrid
> teas, and goes through the summer well, if watered)--anyway, I noticed that
> this still-small shrub had FRUIT on it--hard, green, round fruits about the
> size of cherry tomatoes and smaller.  I called ever-useful Berkeley Hort,
> who assured me that this is a normal, although not annual event.  I blame
> it on El Nino (unless it's La Nina's doing).
> 
> So, are they useful for anything?  And what about the leaves?  Has anyone
> actually ever made green tea from this plant?  How does one do it?
> 
Hi Carol
The only use I know for tea plant seeds is to grow more tea plants and
if you let the fruits ripen I expect they will split and if you like you
can extract and sow the seeds. if you do nothing about it, however, I
wouldn't be surprised if Nature does something with them herself
(Judging by the  behaviour of other species of Camellia in my own
garden)

Your garden thug sounds to me to me to be some species of buttercup. I
have Ranunculus repens very happy in the damper and shadier parts of my
own garden where it spreads largely by runners like a strawberry and
just ramps away especially if it can get into the lawn.

I am afraid I don't know how to make green tea.

Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
"Old" is 10 years older than I am.
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