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The technical classification of Tea
                                                                            
Kingdom: Plantae-plants                                              
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta-vascular plants
Division: Magnoliophyta-flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida-dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Theales
Family: Theaceae-tea
Genus: Camellia
Species: Camellia sinensis

Tea is produced from the leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis, a wild tree originating from the foothills of the Himalayas in northeast India and southeast China. It actually exists in three variations, assamica, sinensis, and parvifolia.  Camellia sinensis v.sinensis was the first tea plant to be discovered and turned in to a drink and is the variety used in Chinese teas, however most of the tea that we drink in Britain comes from the assamica variety which grows in North East India.  Camelia sinensis v. parvifolia is much rarer than the other two and is known as ‘Cambodian variety.’

Left alone, tea trees can grow anywhere between 5 and 15 metres tall.  They have broad green leaves, and in the autumn, small white flowers about 1.5cm wide.  The trees have many other uses besides tea itself; the leaves and seeds can be pressed to make an oil similar to sunflower oil (not to be confused with the unrelated teatree oil), the flowers can be used to make dye and the wood apparently is very good for making walking sticks. 

However, walking sticks aside, most of the Camellia sinensis on the planet is used to make tea.  The plants are trimmed to make shrubs around 1.5 metres in height for ease of picking and the new leaves are plucked to make our universal drink.  Tea is now grown all over the world, in China, India, South East Asia, Iran, Turkey, Kenya, and even the USA; fortunately the plant is well suited to such widespread cultivation as it is extremely hardy.  It can survive in average climates as hot as 27ºC and as cold as 14 ºC, as wet as 310cm of rain per year, or as dry as 70cm of rain per year, and in a wide variety of soils.  The one thing it cannot survive is frosts, which is why we in England have to import so much of the stuff.  For the best results tea should be grown in well drained soils with a consistently wet and warm climate.