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| Camellia | |
|---|---|
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| Camellia sasanqua is used as a garden plant, its leaves are used for tea, and its seeds for oil | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Unrecognized taxon (fix): | Plantae |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Theaceae |
| Genus: | Camellia L. |
| Species | |
About 100–250, see text | |
| Synonyms | |
Thea | |
Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae, native to eastern and southern Asia from the Himalaya east to Japan and Indonesia. Scientists are still discussing how many species there are. The number of species varies between 100 and 250. Linnaeus named the genus inhonour of Fr. Georg Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit botanist. amel brought C. japonica from Manila to Spain.
They are evergreen shrubs and small trees from 2–20 m tall. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, thick, serrated, usually glossy, and 3–17 cm long. The flowers are large and conspicuous, 1–12 cm diameter, with (in natural conditions) 5–9 petals; colour varies from white to pink and red, and yellow in a few species. The fruit is a dry capsule subdivided into 1–5 compartments, each containing 1–8 seeds.
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