"Space Cowboy" > wrote in message link.net>...
> I'll give you that for trees in the wild just because it is simply an
> evergreen. Here in the US our old world forrests are thousands of years
> old. I mentioned cultivated tea bushes on plantations and their usefull
> life. The locals might harvest an old tea tree but I don't think there is
> enough for commercial use. It is more probable these trees are picked by
> monkeys.
>
> Jim
>
> "Livio Zanini" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Well, I have personally seen tea trees some three meters high and about
> 800
> > years old (planted in the Song dynasty, people say) on Fenghuang (Phoenix)
> > mountain, near to Chaozhou. As soon as I can scan the slide, I will
> provide
> > you with a picture.
> > L

I've got several teas that come from tea trees, some wild some not.
Menghai produces a wild tree green pu-erh that's quite good. All of
the dan cong family oolongs come from trees rather than bushes
(phoenix, shui xian, etc...). While very few of them will be 800
years old, they're not just the hedge-like tea bushes.

Cameron