Nature Quest: Charming beauty of tea flowers

Five years ago I came across the tea fruit for the first time. The roundish fruits look a bit like olives. The coolies in the tea garden helped me spot the fruits hiding behind the leaves. A little careful look around the garden revealed that they were almost everywhere.

It was an amazing experience for me. I saw the flowers in November. The Samanbag Tea Garden area was in full bloom then. I was mesmerised by the beauty and immediately started taking photos of them. If I had not gotten into the garden, I would not have known that such a rare, beautiful flower even existed.

It is the leaves that matter in the tea industry, not the flowers. This is why the beauty of tea flowers is rather ignored. But the tea plants flower every year as per the rule of nature.

Tea plants at the man-made tea gardens are not allowed to grow high. This is for the convenience of collecting leaves. But in reality, the tea plants grow a lot higher. The evergreen trees are almost two metres high and look like shrubs or small trees. The leaves may grow up to four to 15cm with slightly uneven edges. The white flowers have winding petals. They somewhat look like Nageshhar (Mesua nagassarium).

Tea belongs to Camellia family (Camellia sinensis). Camellia is not common in our country as our temperature is not Camellia-friendly. Three varieties of tea are found across the globe.

 There are tea gardens in greater Sylhet and Panchagarh district. There are a couple of small gardens in Ramgarh of Khagrachhari. One Robert Bruce discovered tea plants in the elevated Assam valley, which laid the foundation of tea industry in India. Later, the Indians pioneered making tea gardens here.