What is Camellia?
Q: What is Camellia?
A: 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.
Q: How many species are there in this genus?
A: Scientists are still discussing how many species there are, but the number of species varies between 100 and 250.
Q: Who named the genus Camellia?
A: Linnaeus named the genus in honour of Fr. Georg Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit botanist.
Q: What size do these plants typically grow to?
A: They are evergreen shrubs and small trees from 2–20 m tall.
Q: What type of leaves do they have?
A: The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, thick, serrated, usually glossy, and 3–17 cm long.
Q: What kind of flowers do they produce?
A: 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.
Q: How does their fruit look like?
A: The fruit is a dry capsule subdivided into 1–5 compartments, each containing 1–8 seeds.
