A Study on the Origin of Tea Plant
II. A morophological study of tea leaves in Burma
1965 Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 190-193
Details
1965 Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 190-193
The author collected many specimens and much seed from the tea plants grown in Northern Shan State and Katin State of Upper Burma, from December 1963 to January 1964, and studied on the morophological characters of leaves using dried specimens and seedlings.
The distribution of Shan-type tea plants was considered from the results of measuring length and width of leaves, number of lateral veins and number of serrations, and from the results of observing colors and hairs on the surface of leaves.
Leaves of specimens collected from Tanple in Katin State were mostly about 14 cm in length and had about 10 pairs of lateral veins, and leaves from the western region in Shan State were larger than the ones from Tanple. The latter resembled to those of Assam-type in India. In the eastern and southern regions of Shan State the leaves were smaller, and in the Northern and Southern Shan State the most of the tea plants had small leaves as in China-type.
The number of lateral veins and serrations of leaves as well as leaf-width are not widely different from each other. The leaves with larger length was likely to have generally more lateral veins, more serrations and wider leaves.
The seedling from the seeds harvested in Northern Shun State, but Tanple more specimens than Namsan, showed many variation in such characters as anthocyanine content of young leaf buds and petioles, leaf length, quantity of leaf-hair, etc. The leaf-length varied from 7.5 cm to 14 cm, and the number of lateral veins varied from 7.5 to 9.5.
Some characters of China-type were mingled with them. The seedlings from Tanple in Katin State showed, however no anthocyanine in young leaves and buds, and they have, 15-20 cm length, with about 10 paires of lateral veins. They seems to have characteristic of Shan-type, and there are few variations in leaf characters.
From these results, the center of distribution of Shan-type tea plants is thought to recognize in Tanple in Katin State, and the one of distribution of China-type tea plants in the eastern reigion in Burma, and so the one of distribution of Assam-type tea plants in the western region. In the south region, Shan-type are mingled with China-type.
