Theaceae

Tea Family

By: George Rogers

A small family of about 15 genera and 350 species around the world mostly in tropical climates.  The plants are woody, having alternate simple leaves with no stipules.  The flowers tend to be large, showy, round,  and  bowl-shaped, with 5 sepals, 5 petals, numerous stamens, and multiple united carpels.   Fruits loculicidal capsules (SMI).  Tea is Camellia sinensis. Other Camellia species are prominent in warm-temperate horticulture.  Franklinia altamaha is the famed and beautiful Franklin Tree, found only once ever, in 1790, on the Altamaha River in Georgia and retained since then in cultivation.

Plants listed in the manual include:

Gordonia lasianthus