Yunnan is the hometown of plants in the Camellia family and the birthplace of the world's tea trees. After liberation, large areas of wild and native big tea trees were successively discovered in Wenshan, Xinping, Zhaotong, and Jinding Mountain in Jingdong. In 1961, a wild giant tea tree was found in Xincun Village, Yuxian County, with a height of 623 cm, a trunk circumference of 348 cm, and a tree spread of 800 cm. In the same October, an unprecedentedly large tea tree was discovered in Bada District, Menghai County, which astonished people with its height of 30 meters. After two investigations, it was confirmed that this tea tree was the largest "King of Tea Trees" discovered worldwide so far.
This tea tree grows on a southeast-facing gentle slope in the tropical rainforest of "Black Mountain" behind the Chuanzi area of Hesong Township in Bada. The soil there is yellow earth, with deep layers, rich in humus content, good structure, and vegetation dominated by broad-leaved large trees, mixed with lush climbing plants and tall ferns. Due to the dense canopy in the ecological environment, the lighting is not sufficiently abundant.
This tea tree is an upright giant arbor, with a higher branching position, fewer branches, a tree height of 3212 cm, a main trunk diameter of 100 cm, and a vertical projection diameter of the tree crown of about 1000 cm. Classified by leaf type, it belongs to the medium-leaf type, with elliptical leaves, deep green color with luster, a length of 11 cm, a width of 6-7 cm, an average of 7-8 pairs of veins, 28 pairs of serrations, shallow indentations on the leaf edges, an average leaf spacing of about 3 cm, gray-white branches, and strong growth momentum. However, due to the shade and humidity in the forest, the lower leaves are affected by white algae.
The main chemical components of the tea leaves were analyzed, showing that in the old leaf samples, caffeine was 1.14%, soluble fraction 21.27%, and water-soluble tannins 6.07%.
From the identification of external characteristics and internal components, it is confirmed to be a wild tea tree.
Based on the analysis of the survey results:
First, from the location where the tea tree grows and the environment of the place, this tree is of the wild type. There are still few people living there now, the forest is close to its original type, and the tea tree coexists with other large trees with diameters ranging from 0.5m to 1.5m, making it impossible for it to have been cultivated.
Second, from the perspective of the tea tree's shape and posture, it is also of the wild type. It has a tall straight trunk, fewer branches, and high branch positions. This structure can only form under the influence of generations of forest environmental conditions. In the vast forest, tea trees compete with other trees for sunlight, requiring longitudinal development as a guarantee. On the contrary, under artificial cultivation conditions (such as topping and pruning), the branch position will definitely be lowered, and the branches will expand horizontally, but this tea tree does not behave like this.
Third, from the contents within the tea tree's leaves, it lacks cultivation quality. Taking home-grown tea as 100, caffeine is only 76% of home-grown tea, and soluble tannins are 70%. Moreover, the public’s evaluation after drinking it is: "It's not as good as home-grown tea, more bitter and astringent." Generally speaking, agricultural technology enhances the above component content and improves quality, and even in current production and experiments, this trend can still be seen, and the influence consequences will be genetically consolidated. The low quality of this tea tree indicates that it has not been influenced by cultivation.
Fourth, from the perspective of the tea tree's community, it is of the wild type. Other tea trees with similar leaf shapes of varying sizes grow alongside this tea tree. These tea trees are scattered randomly on the ground without any pattern, so they can only be considered a naturally distributed group of Camellia plants. The presence of several undrinkable tea trees interspersed among them is the result of the evolution of Camellia plants in this region towards different species.
Finally, the local residents have never heard of anyone living in this primeval forest or planting tea trees here.
From all these analyses, this tea tree undoubtedly belongs to the wild type.
Since tea originated in China, our ancestors, through long-term practice of using tea as medicine and then developing it into a beverage, not only accumulated rich experience but also nurtured our national culture and imparted cultivation techniques and drinking arts to people in various countries around the world. China's history and technology in the tea field enjoy the highest reputation worldwide. However, with India learning tea cultivation techniques from China, some scholars led by Samuel Baildon fabricated the nonsense of "tea originating in India" to decorate the face of Indian tea, erasing China's achievements in tea, thereby achieving the despicable purpose of squeezing out Chinese tea in the international market. Their reasons were that no wild giant tea trees had been found in China, while wild tea trees (Assamic) were found in the As-sama region of India (whether they are truly wild?). They also claimed that all world teas belong to one species, namely Indian tea, and that small-leaf dwarf clusters in China are the result of Indian tea moving north to China due to climate influences; that Indian tea was introduced to China 1200 years ago; that there are no wild giant tea trees in China, etc.
After liberation, under the leadership of the Party, China's tea scientific research workers paid attention to this work, and with the help of the masses, many native and wild giant tea trees were discovered in places such as Hainan Island, Renhuai in Guizhou, Guning in Sichuan, Anxi in Fujian, especially in various parts of Yunnan. All these facts strongly refute the false claims of the British. The discovery of the Bada wild giant tea tree is the strongest rebuttal to the pseudo-statements of some scholars from Britain and India. The discovery of this wild giant tea tree reveals the objective fact that tea trees originated in China.