On Sep 25, 2:13 pm, Space Cowboy > wrote:
> Im developing a new appreciation for
> Assam because it is the primal tea stock. I came across a website
> yesterday that said the Yunnan assam was intentionally planted along
> the silk road into India via Burma. My books say independent
> geographical isolated areas.

Actuallu Yunnan Assam does not exist taxonomically . The large leaf
Yunnan is actually a subvariety of Camellia - Camellia sinensis var.
sinensis f. macrophylla

The taxonomy of tea has been continually disputed since 1752 when
Linnaeus originally named it Thea sinensis (the naming based on a 1712
drawing of a specimen collected from Indonesia). Later Linnaeus
abandoned the specific sinensis and substituted T. bohea and T.
viridis (effectively black tea and green tea; the great taxonomist
being unaware that either type of tea could be manufactured from any
tea variety. There followed centuries of dispute between the claims
of Camellia and Thea as the correct genus for cultivated tea. The
Gordian Knot was effectively dealt with in 1891 by Carl Ernst Otto
Kuntze whose pioneering work entirely revised plant taxonomy (but
whose efforts were until long after his death reviled, then buried, by
the academic elite). Otto recognized tea as a true Camellia and today
tea is botanically referred to simply as Camellia sinensis (L.) O.
Kuntze, in recognition. This cleared the botanical decks of hundreds
of tea "species" - C. assamica, C. irrawadiensis, C. hongkongensis, C.
taliensis, and C. macropylla amongst them. Post Kuntze all these
became varieties of C. sinensis. While dispute still continues about
the genetic contribution of a host of geographical varieties, we now
have since 1958, a simple formalized classification thanks to Sealy:
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis for the China type bush (capable of
withstanding cold down to frost conditions) and Camellia sinensis var.
assamica for the larger leaved Assam type bush more typical of the
tropics, incapable of withstanding frost. Note that Camellia sinensis
var. sinensis is further divided into sub varieties: Camellia sinensis
var. sinensis f. parviflora - the very small leaved bush type found in
Japan (e.g. Yabukita) and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis f.
macrophylla - the Yunnan 'Big Leaf' bush which mainly provides pu erh.

You will still find many tea scientists and tea book authors locked in
a time warp and using old taxonomic nomenclature (I do myself
sometimes) and a further complication is that C. sinensis is an out
breeder. A myriad of hybrids exist between the species, varieties and
sub varieties - both naturally by cross pollination (though limited by
geography) and intentionally by plant breeders where any combination
may be tried.

Nigel at Teacraft