I do not have the full records of Darjeeling tea history,which dates
back from 1841, as per Nigel.
The present siuation is that every Darjeeling garden has variety
ASSAMICA as well as Sinensis and Hybrid plants and Clonal plants
with varying %. Large leaf ASSAM varietal yields more than small leaf
China varietal and for this reason even at high elevations, low
yielding and aged sections having Chinary bushe,were uprooted and
replanted with the Assam tea seeds/ bushes.
Which type of plants to have in new areas or in uprooted and
replantred areas of Darjeeling gardens was judiciously decided by the
concerned persons considering various factors like yield, quality,
elevation, soil etc etc.
Drive by any road to Darjeeling town and , you can see many variety of
tea bushes even on the road side .Further Darjeeling planters are very
much hosopitable and they will show you the tea bushes of the type you
want to see, if they have in their plantations. Drive to Darjeeling
via Mirik and on roadside you will see Assam varierty of tea bushes
belonging to Gaybari at low elevation and you will see some of the
highest elevation Clonal tea bushe of Gopaldhara. And mind that 60
Hectares of Conal plantations of Gopaldhara though called CLONAL
have come from cuttings of different mother bushes called clonal
bushes and to find out the full history of the earlier generations
is left to the historians of tea or old planters or tea research
association etc...
Hello Nigel, I requested you to see our Darjeeling gardens last time
I met you in a Tea conference and my invitation stands but keep in
mind that I will be crossing seventy years soon.
From
A marwari and Indian and owner/ planter of darjeeling garden
and ....... and by name
S. M. Changoiwala


"On Mar 25, 3:07 pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
..
> So the Yunnan big leaf cultivar
> isn't C. sinensis var. assamica, it's C. sinensis var. sinensis
> f. macrophylla.
> Could you comment on the claim that the original China seeds were in
> fact from this cultivar?
>
The recorded history of Darjeeling tea relates only that the original
few seeds planted in 1841 were from China stock - planted at 2,134
metres - 6,829 feet elevation. Yunnan derived Camellia sinensis var
sinensis f. macropylla could certainly survive the high mountain
conditions - Kunming itself is at 1,900 metres and parts of Yunnan top
4,000 metres. However, in my albeit limited experience of Darjeeling
I know of no big leaved bushes there - only small tough bushes bearing
small China 'jat' leaf - and typical of the bushes grown in most of
China, particularly the colder winter areas. Recognising that
"absence of evidence is no evidence of absence" we must seek
amplification from Darjeeling planters as to whether in some corner
there are any large leaf bearing bushes.

Nigel at Teacraft
From: Nigel


On Mar 25, 3:07 pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
..
> So the Yunnan big leaf cultivar
> isn't C. sinensis var. assamica, it's C. sinensis var. sinensis
> f. macrophylla.
> Could you comment on the claim that the original China seeds were in
> fact from this cultivar?
>
The recorded history of Darjeeling tea relates only that the original
few seeds planted in 1841 were from China stock - planted at 2,134
metres - 6,829 feet elevation. Yunnan derived Camellia sinensis var
sinensis f. macropylla could certainly survive the high mountain
conditions - Kunming itself is at 1,900 metres and parts of Yunnan top
4,000 metres. However, in my albeit limited experience of Darjeeling
I know of no big leaved bushes there - only small tough bushes bearing
small China 'jat' leaf - and typical of the bushes grown in most of
China, particularly the colder winter areas. Recognising that
"absence of evidence is no evidence of absence" we must seek
amplification from Darjeeling planters as to whether in some corner
there are any large leaf bearing bushes.

Nigel at Teacraft>
> > 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.
>
> Nigel at Teacraft "