How does tea grow

In , the distinctive molecular components of tea were found in plant matter collected in northeastern China and Tibet, and then carbon-dated to about 2, years old 1.

It is overly simplistic to imagine that there is a moment at which a wild plant transforms into an agricultural product. For every plant currently grown by humans, that initial domestication involved humans taking an interest in wild-growing plants — at first gathering fruit or leaves, for example — and then starting to cultivate them for their own use.

Consciously or not, growers preferentially propagating the plants that best provide the qualities they want exposes that species to artificial selection. Over time, this usually results in big changes to the species. For example, teosinte, the wild ancestor of maize corn , is a highly branched wild grass bearing many tiny ears of corn — strikingly different to the robust single stems of cultivated maize that produce just a few large ears.

By contrast, however, farmed brazil nuts are almost indistinguishable from their wild forebears. The origins of tea are clouded by the fact that wild C. Close cousins of C. And where wild-growing C. This situation is not particularly unusual. There are many reasons for this, he explains. The plant might have been rare and driven to extinction, for example. But why ever it was, this means that researchers do not know the point from which tea domestication proceeded.

Breeding tea probably selected for traits such as higher yield, perhaps by choosing plants with seasonal uniformity in growth and resistance to cold and disease. But, almost certainly, there would also have been selection for the production of compounds that make drinking tea a pleasurable experience.

The caffeine that gives tea its stimulatory effects is a neurotoxin to insects and other invertebrates, and might have antimicrobial benefits. Some also offer the plant protection from herbivores or shield it from ultraviolet radiation.

Some combination of these compounds first drew people to wild tea plants, but since then, their relative abundances have probably been shifted by artificial selection. The taste was improved by innovations in processing the leaves — these methods enabled the production of green, white, black and oolong teas from the same plant — but tea was also likely to have been bred for better taste.

Certainly, there is much experimentation in growing tea cultivars — varieties created through selective breeding — with new flavour profiles, even today. But it is not clear when flavour began to drive selection.

In the past two decades, genetic analyses have transformed understanding of the origins of many crops, including maize, olives and rice.

Now, tea is joining them. As plants are domesticated, they become ever more genetically distinct from their wild ancestors.

They accumulate mutations that underlie the traits for which growers select, and variants found on regions of chromosomes close to those mutations can spread alongside them. As time passes, random genetic differences are also amassed. Therefore, the species change genetically, and each plant strain that is kept apart from other strains by growers will also develop its own genetic profile.

Analysis of the genetic differences between cultivated strains reveals most reliably how closely related the strains are. The more related that two strains turn out to be, the more recently they shared a common ancestor.

Deriving such evolutionary histories for cultivated plants is complicated by crosses between cultivars, but the hybrids that result typically have genotypes that are clearly a mixture of two distinct sets of parental genes. Thousands of years of cultivation have teased myriad colors, textures, and flavors out of this single species, which now distinguish the huge variety of teas we know and love. So how are so many distinct styles crafted from this one species?

While many of the physical differences are shaped in the crafting methods used, the true depth of quality flavor can be traced back to the actual growth of each plant. T aking a close look at each part of the Camellia sinensis plant can help us understand how every tea develops its unique characteristics.

Just like all plants, Camellia sinensis grows wild through the natural distribution and pollination of seeds. However, this is rarely how plants on a tea farm begin life. Instead, most tea plants are grown from cuttings, or grafted to existing root systems, in order to preserve the exact genetic makeup of the parent plant.

Tea plants grown from seed will necessarily vary from ancestral plants over time, letting the species adapt to new environmental conditions through the process of natural selection. However, this genetic diversity can also produce diversity of flavor , making seed-grown plants a gamble for tea farms investing in new growth. By replanting cuttings when the tea plants pass their years of peak productivity, tea farms can maintain the flavor profile their customers expect while also keeping yields high.

In some traditions of tea cultivation, like those in the Phoenix Mountains of Guangdong Province, the age and lineage of a tea variety is key to the overall quality of the tea.

Something magical happens in the process of warming a pot and letting the leaves steep for three and a half minutes. If you are one of those who drinks between cups a day, why not have a go at growing your own tea? Can you really grow tea in the UK though? Growing tea in the UK may not be as crazy as you might think, as its origins are in the chilly foothills of the Himalayas. Today there are tea plantations in the Scottish highlands and on the rugged moorlands of Cornwall.

Camellia sinensis is a hardy evergreen plant boasting glossy green, pointed and fragrant leaves. The appearance of delicate white flowers in the autumn means that this shrub has more to offer than just a refreshing cuppa. Camellia sinensis likes an ericaceous soil in a bright, sheltered position but with partial shade.

The soil should be free draining and so planting in pots is a great option giving even the smallest of gardens the chance to become a domestic tea plantation. Tea plants can grow to around 2 metres tall. When planting more than one sapling in the ground, leave a distance of 1. This will give room for the plants to breathe and for them to become bushy. However, if you fancy giving it a whirl, buy your tea seeds from a reputable trader and ensure that the variety supplied is the Chinese Camellia Sinensis Sinensis and not the Indian Camellie Sinensis Assamica , which needs tropical conditions to thrive.

Growers keep the tea plant in the early stage of growth with constant pruning and pick only two leaves and a bud from the tops of the plants. Once workers gather enough quantities of tea leaves, their stash is quickly carried over to a tea factory located right on the plantation.

The factory is placed close to source of the leaves because once the tea is plucked, oxidation immediately begins. The oxidation process is important in understanding tea -- it must be closely monitored during production and is essential in determining the type and quality of the tea.

Before we go any further we'll talk about oxidation. Oxidation is what happens when you cut up a piece of fruit and leave it out for too long -- the color of the fruit changes, usually turning brown or black. Oxidation is also a fancier name for what happens when your car rusts. Oxygen molecules react with any kind of substance, from the metal on a bicycle to the inside of an apple.