Tea plant
Camellia sinensis
Also called Tea, Tea camellia and Cha
Houseplant · Trees & big statementsALL TEA IS THIS ONE PLANT — green, black and oolong differ only in what is done to the leaf after picking. It wants acid soil and rainwater like any camellia, and you pick the bud and the top two leaves, nothing coarser.
Care at a glance
- Ease
- Hard
- Water
- Every 4 daysDrench and drain — water the whole surface until it runs from the holes.
- Light
- Bright indirect, sheltered from midday sun
- Feed
- Every 30 days
- Humidity
- High
- Hardiness
- Hardy — an average winter RHS H4, to -10°C
- Size
- 1.2 m tall · 0.8 m across
- Lifecycle
- Shrub
- Origin
- South-west China
Is it safe for pets and people?
No animal-poison authority lists this plant either way.
Nobody has checked this one against a source for us yet, so treat it as unknown rather than safe.
ASPCA lists Camellia JAPONICA as non-toxic and does not name this species. One sibling's clean bill is not this plant's, and the catalogue has cleared too few of the genus for it to speak for the genus.
Checked against ASPCA and RHS on 2026-09-22. Where a source says nothing, we say nothing.
A guide, not veterinary or medical advice. If a pet or a person has eaten a plant and you are worried, call your vet or doctor now — don’t wait for signs to appear. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
First signs of trouble
- Flower buds browning and falling in autumn. Usually a dry root run in late summer, when the buds were forming — not a winter problem however late it shows.Bud drop · disorder
- Yellow leaves with green veins on a plant watered from a hard tap. It is a camellia: rainwater and ericaceous compost.Lime-induced chlorosis · disorder