I. botany

Tea plants are classified as Camellia sinensis variety sinensis and Camellia sinensis variety assamica (some trees more than 1500 years old are still thriving in their original forests in Yunnan Province, PRC). The tea plant is kept as an evergreen shrub by pruning. When hand picked, only the leaf bud and first two leaves are plucked from the plant. Because of increasing labor costs, mechanical harvesting is now being used in several countries. In tropical countries, tea leaves are harvested all year around. In temperate countries, harvesting is seasonal.