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Camellia
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Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are native to eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Japan and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number. The genus was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel from Brno, who worked on the Philippines. This genus is famous throughout East Asia; camellias are known as cháhua in Chinese, and as tsubaki in Japanese.
The most famous member – though often not recognized as a camellia – is certainly the tea plant (C.
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Encyclopedia
Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are native to eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Japan and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number. The genus was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel from Brno, who worked on the Philippines. This genus is famous throughout East Asia; camellias are known as cháhua in Chinese, and as tsubaki in Japanese.
The most famous member – though often not recognized as a camellia – is certainly the tea plant (C. sinensis). Among the ornamental species, the Japanese Camellia (C. japonica) is perhaps the most widely-known, though most camellias grown for their flowers are cultivars or hybrids.
Description
They are evergreen shrubs and small trees 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, sometimes subdivided into up to 5 compartments, each compartment containing up to 8 seeds.
The genus is generally adapted to acidic soils, and most species do not grow well on chalky or other calcium-rich soils. Most species also have a high rainfall requirement and will not tolerate drought, but some of the more unusual camellias – typically species from karst in Vietnam – can grow without much rainfall.
Camellias have a fast growth rate. Typically they will grow about 30 centimetres a year until mature although this varies depending on variety and location.
Camellia species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species; see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Camellia. Leaves of the Japanese Camellia (C. japonica) are parasitized by the fungus Mycelia sterile (see below for significance).
Use by humans
Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is of major commercial importance because tea is made from its leaves. While the finest teas are produced by C. sinensis courtesy of millennia of selective breeding of this species, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage. For example, in some parts of Japan, tea made from Christmas Camellia (C. sasanqua) leaves is popular.
Tea oil is a sweet seasoning and cooking oil made by pressing the seeds of the Oil-seed Camellia (C. oleifera), the Japanese Camellia (C. japonica), and to a lesser extent other species such as Crapnell's Camellia (C. crapnelliana), C. reticulata, C. sasanqua and C. sinensis. Relatively little-known outside East Asia, it is the most important cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in southern China.
Many other camellias are grown as ornamental plants for their flowers; about 3,000 cultivars and hybrids have been selected, many with double flowers. The Japanese Camellia – often simply called "the camellia" – is the most prominent species in cultivation, with over 2,000 named cultivars. Next are C. reticulata with over 400 named cultivars, and the Christmas Camellia with over 300 named cultivars. Popular hybrids include C. × hiemalis (C. japonica × C. sasanqua) and C. × williamsii (C. japonica × C. saluenensis). They are highly valued in Japan and elsewhere for their very early flowering, often among the first flowers to appear in the late winter. Late frosts can damage the flower buds, resulting in misshaped flowers.
The camellia parasite Mycelia sterile produces a metabolite named PF1022A. This is used to produce emodepside, an anthelmintic drug.
Mainly due to habitat destruction, several camellias have become quite rare in their natural range. One of these is the aforementioned C. reticulata, grown commercially in thousands for horticulture and oil production, but rare enough in its natural range to be considered a threatened species.
Camellias in popular culture
The Japanese Camellia (C. japonica) is the state flower of Alabama as well as the city flower of Sacramento, California, Newberg, Oregon, Slidell, Louisiana, the Chinese municipality Chongqing and of Matsue City in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It is also an emblematic flower of New Zealand. Camellia reticulata is the floral embem of Yunnan province.
Also, camellias have been associated with a number of individuals, both real and fictional:
- Elizabeth, the Queen Mother grew Camellia in all of her gardens. As her body was taken from Royal Lodge, Windsor to lie in state at Westminster Hall of the Palace of Westminster, a Camellia from her gardens was placed on top of the flag-draped coffin.
- Ralph Peer, the music industry pioneer often credited as the father of country music, was a president of the American Camellia Society.
- Coco Chanel was very well known for wearing a white Camellia.
- The heroine of the novel The Lady of the Camellias always wears a camellia as her symbol. She was based on the real-life French courtesan Marie Duplessis.
- In Akira Kurosawa's 1962 film, Sanjuro, the main character takes on the surname 'Tsubaki' meaning camellia, which he happened to be looking at when asked for his name.
- The 1942 film Now Voyager starring Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale a middle aged spinster woman who is treated psychiatrically and as part of her treatment goes away on a cruise. While there she is romanced by a very charming Paul Henreid who affectionately calls her Camille and gives her camellias.
- In the manga Fruits Basket, the character Akito has a fondness for the camellia. This is because her true love, the character Shigure, gave her a camellia in their youth and proclaimed his love for her.
- In the manga Soul Eater, the character Tsubaki is named for the flower, and it is constantly brought up in episodes 10 and 11, that the way the scentless flower dies is tragic and unsettling, a reference to what would've occurred in battle, if Tsubaki hadn't had the emotional support from her partner, which allowed her to succeed in the fight against her brother, as she claimed that the Camellia did in fact have a scent.
- In chapter 11 of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem cuts down Mrs. Dubose's prized Camellia bushes and is then punished by reading to her as she overcomes her morphine addiction. After she dies, Jem receives one in a box from the old lady he was punished to stay with for so many long hours.
- The Magic: the Gathering character "Kiku, Night's Flower" (featured in the Kamigawa trilogy of novels: Outlaw, Heretic, and Guardian) is an assassin who uses magically enhanced purple camellias to kill her foes. (The flowers are described as poisonous, although this is untrue of most real-world camellias.)
- In the manga and anime Bleach, the insignia of the 6th Division of the Gotei 13 is a Camellia. Also, the only one of Inoue Orihime's fairies with the ability to attack is called Tsubaki.
- Camellias are used as a motif in Muriel Barberry's second novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
- In Gabriel García Márquez's novel "Love in the Time of Cholera" Florentino Ariza offers Fermina Daza a white camellia, which she refuses, saying "It is a flower of promises."(61)
Selected species
Footnotes
External links
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