Camellia

The tea tree is a kind of camellia.

Rose, Juniper, Lily, and Camellia were all named after plants, as was Giant Corpse Flower, whose high school experience was far worse than theirs.

I remember noticing that the white camellia was the same color as her smooth forehead “that looked like marble and smelt like myrrh”, that the red camellia matched the color in her cheeks and lips.

Herbal teas, unlike traditional teas, are derived from various plants other than the Camellia sinensis.

Green and black tea come from the same plant, known as Camellia sinensis. But black tea is processed in a way that allows it to quickly oxidize, meaning that it usually has much lower levels of those precious catechins that Dr. Hara and other researchers rave about.

Palms towered majestically over the heads of the lower shrubs, and camellias, stephanotis, and many other semi-tropical flowers were growing luxuriantly in the open air.

Plucking an occasional camellia, getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie Atkinson’s cow on a summer day, helping ourselves to someone’s scuppernongs was part of our ethical culture, but money was different.

I already hinted at the problem of sea eutrophication (where excess nutrients cause algae to flourish) due to the phosphates that used to be added to washing powder, and, surely, it is not pleasant for plants to find underfoot (or, better, "underroot") those surfactants we use daily at home (please, never pour your dishwater on the roots of a magnificent camellia, even if it is blooming in the garden of a next-door neighbor you cannot stand).