Camellia (redirected from Camellias)

camellia (kəmēl`yə) [for G. J. Kamel, a Moravian Jesuit missionary], any plant of the genus Camellia in the tea family, evergreen shrubs or small trees native to Asia but now cultivated extensively in warm climates and in greenhouses for their showy white, red, or variegated blossoms and glossy, dark-green foliage. The tea plant is Camellia sineusis. Several species yield oil from the seeds, e.g., the widely cultivated C. japonica (commonly called japonica) and C. sasanqua and, especially, the Asian C. oleifera, the source of tea-seed oil used in textile and soap manufacture and, when suitably refined, for cooking. C. oleifera has also been used to develop cold-hardy hybrid flowering camellias. Camellias are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Theales, family Theaceae.

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camellia

Any of the East Asian evergreen shrubs and trees that make up the genus Camellia in the tea family (Theaceae), most notable for three ornamental flowering species and for C. sinensis (sometimes called Thea sinensis), the source of tea. The common camellia (C. japonica) is the best-known, particularly for its double (many-petaled) cultivated varieties. The tea plant (C. sinensis), reaching 30 ft (9 m) in the wild but in cultivation kept to a low, mounded shrub, bears fragrant white, yellow-centred flowers.

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camellia

any ornamental shrub of the Asian genus Camellia, esp C. japonica, having glossy evergreen leaves and showy roselike flowers, usually white, pink or red in colour: family Theaceae

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camellia

of Alabama. [Flower Symbolism: Golenpaul, 625]

See : Flower, State

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Camellia

a genus of evergreen shrubs or trees of the family Theaceae. The simple, alternate leaves are on short leaf stalks. The large, solitary flowers are white or red. There are five or more petals and many stamens. The common camellia (Camellia japonica) and its hybrid forms have single or double odorless flowers and are raised outdoors in the Caucasus and southern Crimea and indoors (often in greenhouses). The plants of this genus are propagated by cuttings and seeds. Tea is made from the young shoots of the species C. sinensis and C. assamica. The leaves of the tea oil tree (C. sasanqua), which is native to Japan and China, yield an essential oil containing 97 percent eugenol, a valuable disinfectant used in dentistry. Species are grown in the Black Sea regions of the Caucasus.

REFERENCE

Sealy, J. R. A Revision of the Genus Camellia. London, 1958.