Tea

Stewartia are shrubs and trees, mostly deciduous, though some species are evergreen. The Asian species include both shrubs and trees, growing to 3 to 20 m tall, while the American species are shrubs growing 3 to 5 m tall, rarely becoming small trees. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, serrated, usually glossy, and. The flowers are large and conspicuous, with 5 (occasionally 6-8) white petals. The fruit is a dry five-valved capsule, with one to four seeds in each section. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia in China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with two in southeast North America, from Virginia and Kentucky south to Florida and Louisiana.

The camellias are a fairly large group of flowering plants, several of which are of tremendous commercial and cultural importance to humans. The Tea plant (C. sinensis) is a member of this group, and, as its name suggests, its leaves are used to make tea. Several other species within the genus are also used culinarily. Oil-seed Camellia (C. oleifera), for instance, is used to produce teaseed oil. A great many camellias are also planted ornamentally, as they sport large, showy flowers.

Of the roughly 40 species, most are native to southeast Asia in southern China and Indochina. They are evergreen trees, growing to 10 to 20 m tall. The bark is thick and deeply fissured. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, serrated, thick, leathery, glossy. The flowers are large and conspicuous with 5 (occasionally 6-8) white petals. The fruit is a dry five-valved capsule, with 1-4 seeds in each section.

Schima is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the tea family, Theaceae. There are about 20 species. The genus inhabits warm temperate to subtropical climates in Asia.