Nigel > writes:

> On Mar 13, 2:58Â*pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> > [...]
> > Are you saying that all Darjeeling-grown tea is descended from the
> > China seeds?
>
> Yes, for all high elevation Darjeeling (and that's most of it) this is
> so, or at least was until the 1970s when some import of external tea
> germ plasm began for breeding purposes and clonal selection. However
> the vast majority of Darjeeling planting is derived from the original
> source - China seed - and some of those bushes are 100 years plus.

I'm afraid I have no idea what the situation was before the '70s. And
whether bushes with non-China genes are used more at lower DJ
elevations I don't know, either. But I remember hearing quite clearly
from the lips of a Darjeeling planter that some of the best DJ teas
have an Assam heritage. This was four years ago in Darjeeling.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html